Antrel Rolle says his team can only beat themselves, the 49ers certainly can’t. Hakeem Nicks says the Saints would have been a more difficult opponent, and plenty of the Giants say they are ‘relieved’ that the 49ers beat the Saints last Saturday. That this is the easier road to the Super Bowl. I guess this sort of makes sense, as the Saints beat the Giants 49-24, and the 49ers ‘only’ beat them 27-20. The only thing I’ve heard from the 49ers is that Anthony Davis rhetorically asked via Twitter, “Are the Giants doing drunk interviews?” Funny stuff. Talk happens, but even the wonks at ESPN buy into the whole Giants-are-going-to-win deal wholeheartedly. There’s having confidence, and then there’s smug arrogance. It’ll be a pleasure to smack the smug off their faces.
The thing that matters more to me is that the Niners beat them once already. They can certainly beat them again. Sure, the Giants are hot. They’ve won 4 in a row. Then again, so have the 49ers. Eli Manning considers himself ‘elite’? Well, good for him. The Giants think this’ll be easy? Nevermind the 7 RBs we’ve shelved this season? The latest being Pierre Thomas fumbling and getting knocked cold by Donte Whitner on the 3 yard line early in Saints game. Nevermind the #1 hardest team to score against in the NFC this season? 38 takewaways?
The other thing about this game is that Frank Gore was hobbled in the 1st meeting, and had 6 carries for 6 yards. I think the Niners will have much greater success running the ball this time around. There’s talk that the weather will be less than ideal. If so, this also plays into the Niners hands as I don’t think the Giants will be very successful running this game. Without Gore, the Niners only rushed for 77 yards. The Giants? 93. I’m not saying this game will be easy, but I think this game WILL be easier than the Saints game. Aldon Smith has come a ways since the Giants game, and Justin Smith is on fire. I see the Niners getting 3+ sacks and a lot of hurries on Manning.
Forty Niners Forever 
Giants just are grateful they didn’t have to go to NO this playoffs and face Brees on his turf. So in comparison, SF seems much more promising to them.
The talk is overrated- on both sides. Even Tuck ( was it him?). What did he say?
“I think we’re going to win. Do I guarantee it? No. But I wouldn’t get on the plane if I didn’t think that we could win” I think that’s close- BFD.
The guy who should shut up doesn’t play for either team- Romanowski saying we should hurt their receivers..
Speaking of receivers- NY is not going to single Vernon in man, Crabtree has to step up and if he’s good to go, Delanie could be huge…
They lose either way, so they shouldn’t be playing favorites.
Yeah just like Davis saying he’d rather play NY. Why? Because it would be a home game. No brainer.
We need to get more pressure on Manning than the last time. But we will. Our D is relentless and despite its ranking still somewhat overlooked. Fine. It WILL be a sloppy game though – slips, falls, and probably fumbles. But the Niners are the tougher, more complete team. At home. We’ll win 27-17.
Well, with the Niners it was cut and dried. Home vs the Giants, or on the road vs GB. The Niners nevers said ‘we want the Giants becasue they are easier.’ My point is, why talk about it at all? Yeah, they love to talk. Good for them. Coughlin, for being Mr. Hard Ass Disciplinarian, doesn’t seem to mind letting his guys spout off shit that may come back to haunt them. Everyone says things like, if you need more motivation than already required, blah blah blah, but this kind of routine dismissing of the 49ers has to help some. I know it has helped ALL SEASON. You KNOW Harbaugh is saying this in the meetings.
Yeah, I’ve been saying that all week, VD will not get the chances he got last week. The Giants have the players, and base pass rush, to double VD. Word comes out today whether Walker can play. He had his biggest game vs the Giants, catching 6 balls for 70 yards. That being said, the WRs need to step up. Fricking Crabs has to stop with the drops. He had come around late in the season, but really hurt the team with those drops last weekend. KW needs to get more shots.
The Giants weakness IS their DBs. The Niners need to take advantage of that.
No doubt VD will get a lot of attention. Crabby has to step up. This is where the relative weakness of the WR corps really hurts. I’ll say again, with that pass rush, we need some screens and draws into the game plan, something the Niners rarely do…
Remember Fred “The Hammer” Williamson? Bragged he was going to knock out a couple Packers in SB1 ( not called the Super Bowl then) “Two hammers to (Boyd) Dowler, one to (Carroll) Dale should be enough”.
Fred was knocked cold himself…
He was a lousy actor as well . . .
Who was the guy to nail Fred?
From ESPN top SB goats:
“Kansas City cornerback Fred Williamson boasted before the game that he’d be all over Packers receivers Boyd Dowler and Carroll Dale. “Two hammers to Dowler, one to Dale should be enough,” he said.
Well, not quite. Dowler injured his shoulder while blocking early in the game. His replacement, the hungover, semi-retired Max McGee, burned The Hammer and his mates for seven catches, 138 yards, and two TDs. Dale caught four passes for 59 yards. Williamson was credited with a whopping three tackles.
And he was crushed, knocked out and carried off on a stretcher after he brought down Packers rookie Donnie Anderson in the fourth quarter. “I don’t remember a thing,” Williamson said. “Did I make the tackle?”
I want to see Alex step through the pass rush and run more often. Obviously, a designed run like his td score would be welcomed, too.
Bottom line is that Alex isn’t likely to throw the ball as often as he did last Sat. Considering the weather and the fact that we need to keep their sack studs honest, we will see a lot more of Gore, Hunter and hopefully Alex running the ball vs the Giants.
Word out of New York is that Eli Manning has a case of the technicolor yawns. He was forced to leave practice and sell Buicks for the remander of the day. We’ll see if this is a lingering case of the ralphs or merely a 24 hour bug . . .
I totally trust how Alex has taken care of the ball including throwing it away in the red zone, running when appropriate, and taking the sack when appropriate. I understand the desire to see him run more, he’s really a good runner, hell he looked like he was running the old Packer sweep Saturday….but I have no desire to see Kappy under center until, oh, maybe 2016…
Who was that idiot that started the year on Chuck’s blog till he was banned? Spit? Something like that. He was adamant about Alex Smith being slow and unable to run. I wonder what he thought of his corner-turning td run on Saturday…
That was him . . .
I swear to fuckin’ God I’m NOT spitwad….promise
Well, it all depends on the run blocking. The Giants supposedly are easy to run on, but the Niners only got 77 yards on the ground vs the Giants the 1st time around. And 17 came on the Kendall Hunter TD run. And yeah, the Niners did well last week vs a sieve-like NO run defense, to the tune of 143 yards.
As we all know, Gore got hurt in the Giants game in week 10. The hope is that he can get going early to slow down their front 7. The Giants played it that Gore was going to run a lot, and thus stopped him early.
Agree Crabs need to step up.but a key wildcard could be Kendall Hunter on screens and tosses to the outside.has the speed to make some plays.
I agree, Kat. The Niners rarely run screens, for whatever reason. I know Smith had problems with them off and on over the years, and a few have skipped off Gore’s hands for picks, but they rarely seem to be blocked well besides. I think the Niners have run 4 all year (and that weird throw-back to Alex that lost 4 last weekend) to Gore, and maybe one was a big gainer.
I usually don’t like Jim Rome on ESPN, but he was talking about Tim Tebow yesterday, which led into talking about Alex Smith. He said in effect, if Tebow thinks he catching shit, he should walk a few miles in Alex Smith’s shoes. Smith has weathered major injuries, huge expectations, and a fan base that has wanted his head on a platter for around 6 years.
And no, that wasn’t a reference to St. John the Baptist . . .
Talk about an ‘Escape Goat’… man the Baptist got royally fucked…
Per Matt Maiocco, Delanie Walker returned to practice today. Good news. Peele wasn’t really doing it for me.
what’s wrong here ?
ok TWINFAN !
IF YOU HAVE
NOT
GLOATED BIG TIME YET … PLEASE DO !
ALEX SMITH WON A PLAYOFF GAME !
WITH HIS ARM
IN THE CLUTCH !!!
man , i think you’re slippin dude !
Rob strikes!
I let my shoulder bags do my talking, dude. Haha..
That’s one of your best lines ever
I must have stolen it from Loo 😉
I didn’t notice until now, but watch Alex after the game winner. Some Saints must have been doing some barking, it sure looks to me like he barks back, maybe something like “Manage that, pal”..
Also. we all bitch about clock management- it doesn’t get better than the last drive…
Hey I’m just glad harbaugh didn’t pull a Shaw.
Funny Chuck… but actually I was referring more to the on field management- getting in and out of the huddle, the spikes, I bet that more often than not, at the least the TO gets burned, and quite often, time runs out.
Chuck, I have one word for Alex’ alleged “problems” with throwing screens over the years. Practice. And yeah Kat, they need some draws, quick outs/smoke screens to KW, etc. Use the speed of the NYG front four against them…
Yeah, well, it depends on where the CBs are. Smoke routes don’t work in press coverage. which is what I remember them doing most of the time.
I’d prefer slants to get past the LBs quicker.
As far as clock management goes, well, that was the best I’ve seen since, well, Walsh.
Put KWilliams in motion towards Alex and then pop the pass to him, let him loose. That sort of thing worked for that long play, I think for a TD, earlier in the year…
High praise…
The clock management, in this case was (as I pointed out), on the field. Not from the sidelines. So if you’re going to make a comparison it would be Young or Montana.