The incredible season of the San Fransicso 49ers just got more incredible. Green Bay is about to fall to the New York football Giants, and they will be travelling to San Francisco to take on the resurgent 49ers for the right to represent the NFC in Super Bowl XLVI. After posting a 1-3 record in the wildcard round, I hit them all this weekend.
Funny thng is, I had scheduled a Christmas party for the family, late in November (we all couldn’t get together until yesterday) not knowing anything about the playoff schedule. So it just coincidentally worked out to be the Niners shining moment in the sun. So I had a housefull of screaming yelling, and in the end, happy as hell fans. I can go on and on about the game, the redemption for Alex Smith, the unvarnished support Smith has gotten from VD throughout his career, and the support from the other players on the team who have stuck with Smith through the good, the bad, and the injuries. That Smith wanted to stick around, through all the trashing by coaches, the lukewarm support from the front office, and the outright hatred of a lot of the fan base tells you something about the kind of man that is Alex.
So, here we go. On to the NFC Championship game. The Giants are coming back here hot as hell, but Green Bay looked a little shell shocked due to the tragedy that befell Packers assistant coach Joe Philbin. As it is, the Niners need to beat a team they beat in week 10, 27-20 on the late batted pass by Justin Smith. I would love to take my son, but tix are already upwards of $350 for crap seats. We’ll see. If I can get it under $500 for 2, I just might do it. I have a couple tenuous leads that I’ll follow up on. Anyhow, either way, WOO HOOOO!!!!! One win from the Super Bowl!!!
San Francisco 49ers Forever 
Just a minor nitpick- it’s a disservice to all the other players who helped win the NY and Philly games to say Justin won those games- his great plays helped preserve the wins. Neither play won either game..
I’m not gonna recap the whole game for the thread, TF. Just giving a brief overview of it.
I wasn’t singling you out, it’s been repeated so often it’s become an urban myth.
I will give you all KAT’S lock of the week Championship game predictions winners and”Nailed the score dead on” prediction later in the week…now back to the Golden Globes Awards.
Niners will win the Super Bowl this year….and that’s coming from a Raider fan. Book it. You heard it here first.
you Raider fans are wrong about everything, how is this supposed to make us feel confident, lol
Uhh, I picked the Niners to beat the Saints by (give or take) a TD….and check my picks for the games this wknd….I was pretty much spot on except for the Giants win…didn’t see that one coming. Anyway, at this point the 9ers are virtually unstoppable…trophy #6 is coming to SF in a few weeks.
Well, I’m sure other others said it first, me for one.
Where? Haven’t seen it.
Phil sez: Niners 31-24 v da Giants in the NFC Championship game. This coming from the guy who came closest this week (Flavor changed his call to let me squeek in there) to the score against what’s their name? So listen up! Chuck is claiming he had a big party yesterday? Yeah they prolly drank up the case of the good stuff supposed to go me (sez me). Lousy bums…
Niners 31-24 and on we go gentlemen.
that sounds reasonable, I’ll probably go with something similar. I hit 4 of my 5 parlays and combine that with my college bowl parlays and it is good times here at Casa de Flavor. As I have done for the last 3 years, I’ll fly up to Reno on the 3rd, cash my tickets, party it up, play poker and dump $$ on all the random SB prop bets and then take the first flight out Sunday morning to get back in time for PA SALON’S big Super Bowl Party. It’s like fucking clockwork…….
That sounds great. Man you got this playoff thing Down…
Well, I had us going to the playoffs. I certainly thought a WC win was doable. This far? No, I didn’t think so.
But the similarities remain between this team and the 1981 team as far as improbability goes.
2 more wins? Sure. I said before these playoffs that NO was the hottest team. Well, that honor now belongs to the Niners.
The Giants are white hot right now. They dismantled Atlanta and then beat the PAck in their house in a game that was only remotely close because of poor ref calls. The Giants are legit, I’d fear them if I were you
With ya Chuck……When the 49ers went into Pittsburgh and knocked off the vaunted Steelers back in 81 everyone had the feeling this team had arrived and was on their way to stardom.Getting the same feeling with this team as well!!!!
I think destroying Dallas earlier in the year was the first big sign that something special was happening
Yeah, at the time, i thought if the Niners lose the rest of the games, I’ll still be happy because of the 45-14 slaughter over Dallas.
GB was rocked by the tragedy that hit them last week. They were out of synch all day. And it still took a while for NY to take them out. I’m not worried about NY yet. Maybe by Friday, but for now, all is well.
Actually, I think the refs prevented the Giants from putting them away earlier. They gave them back that fumble which they turned into a TD. And then the Giants had that bullshit helmet-2-helmet call that ultimately led to another TD.
They’re firing on all pistons right now, Chuck…..
Having said that, I think our D is going to do what it did to New Orleans and punch them in the goddamn mouth. New Orleans was and is better than Green Bay, so what we did this weekend is just as big as what the Giants did in Green Bay…….
and what I mean by that is, we took care of a BETTER team at home, they beat a worse team, but they did it on the road. Both wins were outstanding.
This is going to be an epic game……
They lost to Dallas, but the road wins in Phil and Det got me thinking Harbaugh had this team turned around.
Not that it matters, but I called a Super Bowl run a while ago…part of it was the fan in me but a good deal of it was seeing that the 49ers HAVE all the parts they need. The players don’t “take plays off”. That and the fact they don’t have a problem with Prima donna’s….not saying they might not have them but they don’t have a problem with them.
OLine will need to brace for some talented Dlineman coming their way…Bruce Miller will be a key guy this week at least for a couple good plays carrying the ball or as a pass receiver.
Other than that…same old S.O.P. (standard operating procedure)
The way this has shaped up for the NIners is almost scary good. Giants are a very balanced team, and their front 4 on D we know is good. I give the Niners the edge in coaching. Giants have the edge in QB. Niners have the edge in defense. They’ve played already once in the season, so there’s no surprises. This is the real deal. Another champeenship game at the Stick will bring back great memories. The crowd will be loaded for bear. Can’t wait…
i don’t know that they do have an edge in qb. eli is outstanding but he’s more of a gunslinger. that leads to int’s. alex is really good about “managing” the game until he has to “win” the game. in other words, eli is going to go for it pretty much all the time. alex is going to play it safe if he has the lead or is slightly behind. the bottom line is, when alex wants to sling, he’s been successful at it this year. the key to this game could very well be the o-lines vs. the d-lines. some big similarities there as both primarily rush 4 on d and are able to get pressure. Alex is going to have to use his legs more. would love to see them roll him out more and move the pocket some. crabtree has to show up. he dropped three and alex stopped throwing to him. that would be bad this weekend.
The crowd will be loaded for beer, too.
“
As I showed with the splits on Alex and Brees before the the game- at the Stick, the QBs were comparable. And Alex has the QB edge over Manning here.
Manning(away) 15 TD 7 INT 93.3 QBR
Alex (here) 12 TD 3 INT 98.8 QBR
Measuring QBs in yards passed is similar to judging pitchers on W-L alone.
Twin, I don’t have the numbers, but my guess is Rodgers’ stats at home were better than Eli’s on the road going into yesterday’s game. How’d that turn out?
Well, except for a fluke Hail Mary and 8 dropped passes by GB, the Pack wins. Manning wasn’t better than Rodgers.
How did Eli’s last game with us turn out? Look, Eli is a good QB, but they won’t run against us and he’ll, as last time, make at least one more mistake than Alex.
Manning wasn’t better than Rodgers? OK, we’re watching completely different games. Packers also got their two TDs thanks to atrocious officiating: A fumble that everyone saw except for Leavy, and a phantom blow to the head penalty. And I’d like to think the Giants’ defense, which got four sacks, had a little something to do Rodgers being off his game.
I’m sure you’re right, 38-0 Giants?
Whatever, Mike.
Just trying to be agreeable. How about this- make it simple… The winning team in all 8 postseason games had the QB with the highest rating for the game. Am I correct in guessing that you think that will be Manning?
Lots of others disagree with you, but I least cited something concrete- Alex DID out perform Brees AND he beat Manning here.
The weather forecast is calling for a downpour all weekend. This should favor our D and running game
DTD asked for a retort after he pointed out that Brees threw for over 400 yards against Detroit. I responded that I could see him going over 400 again- and losing to Smith and his 200 yards..gee, I undersold Alex a bit… Brees is a great QB but besides Alex’s late heroics, this was won by Smith’s better ball security…
cough.Lin is a stubborn ass much like ol’ “dr. Heat” or whatever the fuck that d-coordinator calls HIMSELF. The giants are going to have a lot of 3 and outs as the try to force the run. It won’t work just like it hasn’t worked for everyone else. We’ll sit back and pick off gunslinging Eli at least a few times.
I’m a little concerned about the weather simply cause the Niners haven’t played on a sloppy field (or really any bad conditions) all year.
But whatever, I think we beat the Giants. Again.
I have turned into a total 49er dweeb…as I was watching plays over and over on the ‘ole puter I kept coming back to the great protection Alex Smith had on those pass plays to Vernon Davis…the blitzing by the Saints totally made it necessary to run man coverage against our guys…the OLine’s and Frank Gore’s blitz pickup was beautiful…those guys picked up the right guys to block no matter what twists were being made or linbackers and safetys were being sent…they Saints were coming from all different directions but the pass protection was superb on those big downfield plays. They nailed it. Alex made it payoff too with great throws and Davis with great catches…..The Giants may not want to load the box and leave their defenders on an island like the Saints did. Alex has proven he can make defenses pay for that.
Receivers gotta catch the ball though.
I think the rain can favor the passing game, especially if it is muddy and there is no traction for the runners and blockers and DLineman….but that field at the ‘Stick will be in good shape.
Gore’s style of running favors a “muddy” track…he is a mudder, why even his mudder was a mudder!
Gregg ‘Dr. Heat’ Williams, the Saints DC, is taking his act to St. Louuie. He’s going to be Jeff Fisher’s DC. We get to see him 2x a year now . . .
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Bradshaw out for the Niner game? Not that it matters all that much, but I know Gore was, too. The good news is like Flav said, Coughlin is nothing if not stubborn, so the Niners should get some early 3 and outs as ol’ Tommy tries to get his run on. For all the yards in the air given up, the Niners did an excellent job of shutting down NO’s deep passing game. The Niners were killed by those late intermediate passes, though. Graham is a hell of a TE.
One thing the Giants are going to try and recreate was the short little dump-off to Sproules that came off everyone else going deep. He was wide open, and there was no one near him once he got past the line.
And you can bet your sweet ass that Coughlin, a guy who doesn’t blitz much anyway, is going to throw everything at VD. He will be doubled EVERY play. This would be a good game to get Walker back, as Peelie isn’t thrilling me much as the 2nd TE.
The play I dug the most was the crossing pattern that VD took down the sideline for 50 yards. Right in stride, and VD did the rest. Well, that and not going for the knee/FG with 14 seconds left. Balls out in the playoffs. Gotta love it.
Peele was wide open about 4 yards short of the goal line on the game winner. Yet it had the look of being short by a yard or so with defenders bound to close. Alex never looked at him, thank goodness..
They obviously caught some teams at the right time lately, but the NYG are a legit 7 loss team- 27th in defense and last in rushing during the regular season. They’re dangerous like any team on a roll is, and yes Mac, Manning is good— but his team is not as good as the Niners. Unless we uncharactistically make mistakes, it’s on to Indianapolis…Niners 30-17
Weird that The Giants are last in the league in rushing—I didn’t know that till I just looked it up. Brandon Jacobs is a load and Bradshaw had a very nice 2 years prior to this year—-either way, I’m not worried about their running game mostly because I’m not worried about ANY team running the ball against us………
Start worrying!
I’m gonna throw this out there again: If any of you can find the stats on TOTAL red zone points scored by each team this year I would be appreciative…….
Why is that so hard to find? It’s almost like a state secret..
shhhh……..
Don’t know, Flav. All I can say is look up Akers’ FG’s, and where they were kicked from. More often than not, they were in the red zone. I’d say a rough estimate would be 70% in the red zone. The Niners had 30 attempts from 39 yards and closer. 29 makes. 37 yards and in is inside the red zone, but for the sake of this, say 81 red zone FG points.
Akers had 20 attemptes from 40-50+, 13 makes. He was better from 50+ than 40-49. Weird. Been driving all day. make what you will of those stats.
Chuck on the road! No wonder there’s a lot of accidents today.
See? I AM tired. 66% were inside the red zone.
Minus maybe 2 or 3 that were kicked between the 37 and 39 yard lines.
Well. to get the RZ total points for each team, figger out the FGs in the RZ for each team, add TD passes in the RZ, then add touchdowns rushing for each team in the RZ. That oughta take about 3-4 fucking hours. As I said ,why isn’t that a readily available stat? I understand your frustration, Craig. I’ll check with the State Department, they ought to have it.
I am far more interested in baseball stats and as you know, we can find anything we want at the click of a button. I don’t spend a lot of time on micro football stats but the fact that I can’t find what should be a simple stat to find is blowing my mind right now……..
USA today had this stat posted in 2008 and that’s the last time I can find it.
My point with all of this came from a comment I heard or THOUGHT I heard Tolbert say on KNBR saying the Niners scored the 2nd most pts in the NFL in the red zone. I am now certain that I am WRONG that I heard him say this, or he was wrong to say it. The numbers just don’t add up. But it got me to wondering how many ACTUAL points they score in the red zone. I don’t really give a shit about their td % if they’re still scoring points AND holding their opponent to field goals instead of td’s (which I’m certain they’re doing just based off the total # of pts they give up each game).
Man i still can’t get over the “Wood” Donte Whitner laid on Pierre Thomas spinning him 180 degrees and watching him flop to the ground bell totally rung that set the whole tone for the game right there.
Reminded me of Dan Bunz Goal Line Dismantle of Charles Alexander in the Niners first SB.Just Awesome plays by both guys.
I am watching the game now, just finished watching the Eagle game. No team in football hits like the Niners.
it’s amazing at how obvious that is. I mean, you have to hit someone really fucking hard and consistently to stand head and shoulders above the rest of the league. But they do it. They pass the eye ball test. Looks like it hurts…….
I’m still blown away by the Justin Smith bullrush play where he is literally slowly and methodically moving that mountain of a man backwards and then with no leverage at all reaches over (think about how much leverage you would lose there by taking your hand off the defender and now you’re playing him one handed and yet he still kept going forward) and still manages to pull Brees down. I said it at the time, that was just an amazing display of human strength…..
http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/red-zone-scoring-attempts-per-game
This ain’t it . . . but it’s something.
thanks, I appreciate the effort but I’ve seen this already—Believe me, I’ve seen it ALL. My OCD has kicked in fully on this. I don’t understand why I can’t find out how many fucking points the 49ers have scored in the red zone this year, lol!
Akers averaged 12 points/game out of the 23.8 the team averaged.
Which leads me to believe the Niners did rank pretty high in red zone scoring.
Again all I hear is Giants are hot…Giants are improved…Giants have their eye set on …blah blah blah Fuckin blah!
I know this sounds homerish but that is what I Fuckin am….but even trying to sound objective…I thought Green Bay played so horrible that of course the Giants were gonna win. The Giants still did not show me the offensive power or consistency that I hear from all points. They had some drops to stall drives, missed tackles let Bradshaw run on the Defensive backfield of the Pack. Manning wasn’t all that either. Yeah, the thing is they ARE getting better….BUT so are the 49ers!
As good as the 49ers played from start to finish…they still are improving…they haven’t had their best game yet. The 49er offense looks better than NY’s because A.Smith brings consistency and no turnovers. If it ain’t there, fuck take the three points, or punt and when the Defense stops the other team…take advantage of the field position and take another shot…the 49ers are always pressuring on offense…but not forcing things.
The winning pass play to Vernon was calculated, Peele ran an intentional short pattern to draw the linebacker up and Vernon sliped behind him and in front of Harper for the 14 yard bullet.
The 49ers are still getting better…fuck all these fucks who think NY is gonna roll into town and the 49ers are gonna choke on the Giants “greatness”…..the 49ers have improved and they continue to improve and they are gonna come at the Giants just like they have 14 other times this year…stronger and more better than the week before.
BLEEP THE GIANTS!
Yeah! and fuck them too.
Yeah, the Giants are white hot. They had to win their last 3 just to get IN to the playoffs. Dallas was a playoff game. Atl was. GB was. They are road warriors. Yadda yadda yadda. At some point I think it catches up to them. They can’t run on guts alone without some sort of break down. This next cross- country trip, road pressures, Gore being healthy this game, I think it all leads to a win.
As far as the scoring thing goes, the Niners sucked in red zone TDs (29th), but were 11th in the NFL in scoring. 66% of their FGs were in the red zone, so they likely ranked in the top 8?
Sounds good to me. I don’t fucking know . . .
I have a feeling I’ll be watching this few more times- still marveling at Staley’s block on Alex’s TD run- that lumbering sonofagun got 25 yards downfield and absolutely destroyed the safety.
You’re Bleepin’ right Nipper! BLEEP THESE BLEEPIN BLEEPS!
There is no “I” in team but there is a “CAN” in Candlestick!!!!
TF that was as good a down field block as you are gonna get, Staley totally sealed the sideline from the safety coming up and took him out. Another thing you might want to notice is that when Williams goes in motion towards Alex so he is ready to make the crackback block on the end…the cornerback covering him also slides inside! So Williams actually takes two of the most dangerous defenders on that play, out of the play! I don’t know if that was by design but if the cornerback stays there and does not follow Williams, he makes the tackle on Smith. Or maybe Staley gets HIM, but when he goes inside Staley is free to go downfield and look for fresh meat.
Everybody executed perfectly
Saw that on replay and still couldn’t believe it. Staley was a rocket. Great block and play
Dennis ya got that wrong buddy. I didn’t make up the Scoring Prognostication Contest. Nope the inspiration for that came from 2 of the chief football proctologists on this blog: chuck and twin off a testy discussion they had early in the season about just WHO made the closest scoring call after a game (forget which). Chuck claimed he did and twin, ever ready to set the record straight, said it looked like chuck changed his score to a better one. I won’t reveal what my diligent research found but I vowed to start recording (just for fun) all the predictions and put ’em in one place. We had a couple weasels last week with Kevin changing his call (lower scoring- wrong!) at the last minute and Chuck doing the same on Grant’s blog last minute and sneaky. Flavor lowered his scores but still made a bundle with his bets. Grant had the worst call but hey he’s young. No harm in changing yer call before kickoff right?
And that Dennis is how and why the Scoring Prognostication Contest came to be. But yeah the fix IS in…notice who won again last week? It sure wasn’t LOL Cohn…
Niners vs Giants Scoring Calls:
31-24 NIners Phil
30-17 Niners twinfan
Place yer bets gentlemen
Kudos to Del Mar who has the stones to admit it right here when he blows the call for humbly admitting he has been ‘in error’ about one Alex Smith to this point. Good job Dennis! Thanks for facing the reality of what we are seeing now. More ‘n we can say about some deniers.
I really do appreciate this. Why is so hard for some to say “I was wrong”?
What, we’re all supposed to be ‘Saints’? God forbid and good job Denny.
repost from Skeeb’s blog
Still I’m pretty sure Denny’s not quite ready to anoint Alex to godhead status quite yet…maybe in 3 weeks?
Grant’s blog, Phil? Who’s Grant?
Harbaugh’s press conference yesterday was pretty funny. Harbaugh said Staley came up to him and said, “Wait til you see the film on my block!”
Smith takes the Niners to the NFC Championship and Dennis isn’t ready to call him good? Criminy, what a mook.
LOL, yer a crack up. There is a rumor “Grant” is Chuck’s son but others say “Who the hell is Chuck?” Me, I dunno man : )
Great block by Staley on the safety. Man that guy can fly
Denny manned up and said Alex is good, real good but not Montana or even Young good yet. A couple more good games and he’ll be calling him Saint Alex
They are replaying the Niners game on the NFL Network tonight at 5:00. My fricking DVR stopped taping with about 3 minutes left. Aaaak!
The Giants are sure talking up the fluke angle of the week 10 game. How they won’t lose this time around. Coughlin of course is telling his players to shut the fuck up.
No word from Justin Tuck on how he thought Alex performed last weekend.
Well, DTD doesn’t get credit for acknowledging what he had no choice but to acknowledge. Smith is the only QB in NFL playoff history to lead two lead changing drives in the final three minutes…
But T-Blow does deserve some credit. As I noted, after yet another disastrous performance, he thanked God for helping him suck…
BTW, I’m still waiting for a video of a miltant Muslim football player proseltyzing for his relgion after the game..
Where’s Ahmad Rashad when you need him?
He better bring a prayer mat.
The issue is civil rights not athletes. We’ve heard minority/special interest groups flap their jaws about their rights in the US forever. Muhammad Ali prolly the first Muslim athlete to exercise his First Amendment right to free speech. Fine. So twin do Christians have the right to free speech incl. public prayer? Or maybe they should just “stfu”? I see yer feelin’ betta…ok then, good.
Going for a trifecta here: 9ers are going to be God’s avenging angels sent on a mission to wreck an unholy vengeance on behalf of Tebow and everyone who are sick of the Brady Bunch and the Cheeta. Their moments of glory are soon to be OVAH! And Long May We Reign!
BTW Spit foolishly refuses to say those magic words on Skeeb’s blog “I was wrong about Alex”. Chuck is going over there and ripping him a new one five times a day. Pride coupled with ignorance is not a great combo! (Just spit it out man, lol!)
What’s funny about Tebow is the hooraw around Elway saying “Tebow’s my guy going into training camp.”
Wow. Ringing endorsement there. Big whoop. That could change 10 minutes after camp starts . . .
Right!
Yeah, Harbaugh just said Smith’s his guy if he can withstand challanges from Cody Pickett and Caleb Hanie ( whoda thunk it- a guy so bad he forced Matrz into retirement)..
Elway is gonna have to take off his new sports coat and help my boy TT learn sumptin’ about heaving the rock like he’s promised to do. Jesus, shades of Jim Harbaugh.
Giants have been hot lately but 49ers have been hot all year.And even “lately”, both teams have won 4 in a row.
Giants players start chirping away. Niners will just save it for game time.
This is from Antrel Rolle of the Giants.
The only way the Giants (11-7) don’t beat the Niners (14-3) and advance to the Super Bowl in Indianapolis is if they beat themselves, a cocky Rolle said Monday, a day after New York ended the Packers’ hopes for the second straight NFL title with a 37-20 win in Green Bay.
“We are not going to be denied,” said Rolle
Oh this was in the Sacramento Bee.
Or Manning could repeat his T-Blow like performance from XMas eve- 9 for 27 against the Jets.Or the week before against Washington.. fact is, as hot as Eli can be, he can stink it up as “good” as anybody.But setting that aside- if each team plays it’s best the 14-3 home team will beat the 11-7 visitors..
If I was a betting man I’d take that chance.
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