NEW ORLEANS - The Super Bowl was delayed because of a power outage Sunday, plunging parts of the Superdome into darkness and leading to a 34-minute delay in the biggest game of the year.

The Baltimore Ravens were leading the San Francisco 49ers 28-6 when most of the lights in the 73,000-seat building went out with 13:22 left in the third quarter.

Auxiliary power kept the playing field from going totally dark, but escalators stopped working and the concourses were only illuminated by small banks of lights tied in to emergency service.

Philip Allison, a spokesman for Entergy New Orleans, which provides power to the stadium, said power had been flowing into the stadium before the lights failed.

"All of our distribution and transmission feeds going into the Superdome were operating as expected," Allison said.

He said the outage appeared to originate in a failure of equipment maintained by stadium staff. It occurred shortly after Beyonce put on a 12-minute halftime show that featured extravagant lighting and video effects.

On the CBS broadcast, the play-by-play announcers went silent.

CBS sideline reporter Steve Tasker announced the problem of a "click of the lights" to viewers. Later, the halftime crew anchored by host James Brown returned to fill the time with football analysis. Brown said a power surge caused the outage.

"We lost all power up here at the press box level," play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz said after power was restored. He and announcer Phil Simms were off the air for most of the 34-minute outage.

Big-play man New Orleans native Jacoby Jones caught one touchdown pass and returned the opening kickoff of the second half 108 yards for another score, setting an NFL postseason record, in providing the most explosive moments of the Ravens victory.

On his big catch, Jones slipped behind defensive back Chris Culliver and pulled in a Joe Flacco floater as he fell to the ground just inside the 10. Realizing that Culliver had not touched him, Jones jumped to his feet and dashed into the end zone for a 56-yard score.

Jones' childhood home and his high school were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, but his mother still lives in New Orleans.

"New Orleans is still my home," Jones said. "Playing in the Super Bowl here? That's just the icing on the cake."

This time next year ... N.Y. The weather Sunday afternoon in New Orleans was a comfortable 64 degrees with a clear sky and a light breeze. In other words, perfect weather for tailgating and partying before the Super Bowl.

Of course, the game was played inside the Superdome, where the temperature was said to be around 70 degrees.

Next year will be a very different story because the game will be played outdoors at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., where it was 32 degrees and cloudy Sunday.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell defended the decision at his state of the league address Friday.

Beyonce shimmers Beyonce shimmered with pure star power throughout the halftime show, delivering the kind of charisma and stage presence that Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Madonna and other dance-pop icons only wish they could summon.

And, yes, she was definitely singing live. There will be no lip-syncing controversy after this performance, like there was from Beyonce's appearance at the Presidential Inauguration.

The lone disappointment of the show was that Beyonce's husband, Jay-Z, didn't join the festivities for "Crazy in Love."

Etc. • Flacco became the sixth quarterback in 47 Super Bowls to throw for three TDs in a half.

• Ravens receiver Anquan Boldin had four TD catches in the postseason, matching his regular-season total.

• Ravens safety Ed Reed tied an NFL record with his ninth career postseason interception. The 49ers did not throw an interception in their previous five Super Bowls.

• The 49ers fell to 5-1 in Super Bowls. The Pittsburgh Steelers remain the only team with six Super Bowl titles.