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!!!
Forty Niners 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.