Literally and figuratively. The rain is finally supposed to return to Northern CA after a long absence, and the football teams involved in the NFC Championship game this weekend (well, one of them) have stopped yapping and appear to be actually focussing on the game. Chances are it rains off and on through the game on Sunday.
I guess we’ll see what happens. Slowing the game down would in all likelihood favor the 49ers, as they have a better run game, and more experience playing on that quagmire they call Bill Walsh field. It’ll be high tide as well at 4:22 pm (+4.1′), so that will add to the squishiness. After the NFC Championship game in 1994, they let the fans on the field, and the corners of the field (especially the southwest corner) were about 6″ of muck. The middle of the field was OK, but the closer you got to the sidelines and endzones, it got thicker and muddier.
I’m sure the drainiage is better now, so it should be somewhat better, but still, the Stick is the Stick, and it looks to be a mess by the end of the game.
Forty Niners Forever 
Accuweather.com has rain in the evening around 7:00PM. With almost 2 inches on Saturday. If the weather pattern holds with those predictions then it might not me bad. sloppy field but the QBs, RBs, WRs should be able to hang on to the ball.
Fran Gore is a great mudder.Weather won’t affect him.Niners have a HUGE advantage in the kicking game with All PROS Lee and Akers.Lee is fantastic at pinning team deep forcing a long field.,Akers with plenty of playoff experience and Money all year another huge advantage.Field postion will be key Sunday and.the Niners should prevail with that.
YOU TALKIN’ about my mudder??
For all the talk of Eli and NY’s passing attack, the Niners just beat a VERY good passing team in the Saints. I think the Niners hang with them better than last week. I just wish someone would tell Chris Culliver to get his hands up. His coverage has been solid, but on a few occasions, he hasn’t gotten his hands up to try and block passes.
I suppose it was just a matter of time:
http://blog.sfgate.com/49ers/2012/01/19/ashkon-releases-new-49ers-anthem/
Chuck, you don’t seem to have the option to add a new page like Flavor does.
Try it now . . .
Maybe you need more than author status.
Lemme upgrade you.
Alls I heard last week was the Saints passing attack, how great it was…er..is…Drew Brees and the Saints offense….and in truth it was a juggernaut! That Saints offense was probably the hottest, most audasious offense in the league….but the 49ers tamed it…subdued it enough to win the game.
Now to hear all the “espn barf” on all the major networks, you would think the 49ers had never dealt with anybody WITH an offense. The 49ers just beat a “FERRARI”! The NY Giants are more like an F-150 ! Yes with all the bells and whistles on it but come on! They are not nearly as potent as that Saints offense.
To be sure they are a real and dangerous threat, but they are not going to threaten to break off 40 points like the Saints were.
That NY offense beat a GB team that just played like crap and made them look good.
The 49ers offense have also faced defenses better than the Giants and whipped’em.
I personally don’t care about who gets press but I think it is just wierd that the writers who are professionals; by and large don’t know squat about the 49ers.
Half of them are still talking about Tebow, or the Eagles “Dream Team” which is so irrelevant it feels like “Ground Hog Day”!…The big story is how the little ‘ole 49ers stopped a Saints offense that set scoring records that may never be broken again.
If the weather is bad I don’t know how that favors us. We haven’t played in a single bad weather gm all year. I could see a wet football be tricky for both Alex and the receivers not to mention the poor footing and slipping….
Most of the team has played through rain and wind here in the past. Then again so have the Giants. It’s still home field advantage. The Niners are a better running team, they;ll do better in bad weather.
sure, if they can run the ball all game, I agree. But if we get behind do you really want our receivers who haven’t run on shitty ground for WAY over a year have to do it on Sun? Not me. And Alex throwing a slick ball is not something I’m looking forward to……..
But whatever, I hope I’m wrong. It’s just something in worried about
Well, if you go with Ronnie Lott, and he should know, wet muddy field favors the offense, the WR’s know where they want to go so they can plant their feet better for cuts. Where the SS and CB they start to go one way and then on a dime change direction, more chance of slipping. As far as the running game, I think sweeps would be better than up the middle. Same reason as above.
The field doesn’t matter……just the will and skill will get it done. Niners win big!
You tell’em, nip. It’s the team that wants it more!
They have to play ball-control offense !
They have to establish their running game. !
They have to stop the big play !
They need to dominate the line of scrimmage!
They have to pound it out on the ground !
They have to open up the passing lanes !
They have to take care of the football !
They have to just go out and execute !
They have to make plays on both sides of the ball !
The Niners should just play San Francisco football !
They have to stick to their game plan ! or…
They should throw their game plan out the window !
Hey chuck, I notice you highlight The Catch, The Catch II and The Catch III. There’s an article in today’s Chronicle that supports John Taylor’s touchdown catch in the 1989 Superbowl to be considered one of “The Catch”es. The arguements against being 1) It wasn’t a difficult catch, 2) It wasn’t as close to the final gun as the others and 3) It wasn’t at Candlestick. It than proceeds to dismiss these arguments. Your take?
I’ve never heard a nickname for that catch. I always called it the John Candy drive . . .
Actually, there was more time left after The Catch than there was after the Taylor play. 55 secs to 39 . . .
Yes, the time left was one of the arguements for it. The article mentioned John Candy as well
I agree that I don’t see how wet grounds favor the Niners. Giants have better WRs; that puts our D backfield more on the defensive with slippery footing. I think it does help SF’s OL, bad footing may help neutralize the vaunted NYG outside pass rush. Whatever. I’m going with the WTF Not the Niners mindset. Brett Swain with a TD catch? Niners 34-20….
BTW, these generically assigned avatars are pretty damn funny
Niners vs Giants Scoring Calls:
31-24 NIners Phil
30-17 Niners twinfan
31-20 Niners Chuck
27-17 Niners Snarkk
34-20 Niners barleyfreak
Correction it’s actually
27-17 Niners barleyfreak
34-20 Niners Snarkk
34-17 Niners Kevin continues the trend of calls for a big win
23-13 NINERS Alleykat “I fuckin Hate every thing about NY,from the Dickhead Media all picking NY in a romp,to all their STUPID NASAL Talking Fans”
30-16 Niners Flavor “…keys to this game will be our special teams making PLAYS and Frank Gore”
Alleykat going with New England over the Ravens…..27-16
New England wins 31-10. FLAVOR
(sorry double posted below)
Swett Brain to the rescue!
Rain or no, Harbaugh sure was excited about the lousy weather this morning.
Interesting that no one thinks it’ll be a nail-biter.
I sure f*cking hope it’s not. I’m not sure I can take it. I was a freaking basket case last Saturday. But whatever — as long as we win I’ll take 10 lead changes in the last 10 minutes.
How was yer BP and blood al-q-hol levels? BTW I checked with our distinguished panel of judges (me) and forgot to mention your comment last week WON the grand prize for funniest comment in the Scoring contest. Congratulations and good luck collecting from chuck…
Well I’m pretty nervous right now thinking about Manning torching us with the long pass, something Brees came so close to doing if not for the heroics of Alex and Vernon. X 2. I’m figuring we will wear them down as the game progresses. If they have an early lead we catch them and pull away later on turnovers and running game. Man I forgot how nerve wracking the playoff are…
Thanks, Phil . . .
All good
FYI< Hakeem Nicks rolled his right ankle in practice today, but said it was 'no concern.' Says he rolls it all the time.
TE Jake Ballard retweaked his knee, and is likely out.
Apparently Eli gave about 6 guys the barfs . . . including David Baas.
I’m thinking the offensive line will handle the rush of New Yuck. Unless they Blitz, then Alex Smith will handle it.
New York will have a hard time covering backs coming out of the backfield. I think the Giant linebackers will be targeted by the offense because of the weather and they are not a premier group. Plus I think the 49ers will audible to running plays when the Giants have their “pass rush” guys in the game…Osi Eenymeenymineymo only has 16 tackles this season…9 of those were sacks. Not all the time but I think they can get big chunks of yards on the ground in passing situations.
On Defense, Eli, not known for his running will not have the time he needs to get the ball to the “third receiver” guy. Baas has been a bust in New York, the 49ers little gift to the Giants. Look for Aldon Smith to twist and go up the middle to meet Mr. Manning. Sopoaga will dominate the middle of the line. Same old thing, the Giants will HAVE to pass but will not have all the time they need.
Look for special teams to scoop up a slippery football or two. Andy Lee will keep the Giants buried in their own territory, which gives the defense a lot of shots to take at Manning.
I don’t think Ginn will be returning kicks tomorrow so I hope Williams can deal with it error free.
Akers will be worth his weight in Red and Gold again.
One thing lost in the NY victory over GB was the fact that GB ran for 148 yards on the Giants. I think the Niners should be able to hang 180 on them . . .
Apropos of nothing, I was looking up the Niners record in championship games, and we’re 5-7. In fact the Niners have lost the most NFC Championship games since they started in 1970.
Never knew . . .
7 – SF
6 – LA Rams, Dallas
5 – Vikings
4 – Iggles
3 – Chicago
2 – GB, TB, Carol
1 – Atl, Det, No, Wash
We’d better win . . .
Amen to that. Any truth to the rumor I read somewhere we have only won one NFC Championship on the road? Nice to have the game @ The Fortress then.
Thats right Phil…Back in 89 The Niners kicked ass on Mikey Dikta’s Bears 28-3.As of course every freakin east coaster was predicting a Bear romp.But Joe Cool was even cooler in the snowy weather shredding the Bears secondary with 3 TD passes.
And a glorious win it was, Dynasty 1 at its peak. Good stuff thanks
Hahaha…gotta love my new “avatar”. It could be described as the look of the perpetually dismayed Raider fan…
Yeah well mine looks like Mrs. Potato Head.
My prediction for the game will be
Niners 34 – Giants 17
I think Gore and Kendall have huge games
Good news for me: the people at the home let me out for the weekend so I could watch the game.
Bad news for you: the people at the home let me out for the weekend so I could watch the game.
Good, need all the support we can get for this one too…
Listen up…I fuckin Hate every thing about NY,from the Dickhead Media all picking NY in a romp,to all their STUPID NASAL Talking Fans,who really talks like that?Iom a New Yoorker get some speech lessons you Morons!!!il And that “Fucking RETARD Phil Simms.”Geez I don’t think Andrew Luck is gonna be that good.SIMMS you are just DOG SHIT that needs to be scraped up and shoved down your.throat.
Now that i’m done with my ” Rant”, Here is Kat’s solid lock predictions….NINERS 23-13 Over the Pathetic NY Bias Giants
And I am going with New England over the Ravens…..27-16….To Much firepower with Brady and p2great TE in the G boys plus Welker etc.Ravens are gettin ol
Got ’em. Will update ya’ll @ game time. Kat ya know it was a close thing between you and barley last week for best comment and your’s right now are in the freakin’ lead. I’d change last weeks to make ya a co-winner but I’m confident Chuck has already bestowed the case of the good stuff on old barley. Uh huh, sure he has…
I feel pretty good about this game. I think the keys to this game will be our special teams making PLAYS and Frank Gore. We have home field plus superior coaching. I’m going with 30-16 Niners win……..
I think Baltimore is not playing at their peak right now. I think their defense is now overrated and their offense sucks. Even against New England I think they’ll have trouble scoring. New England wins 31-10.
I really am not sweating the Niner game too much. I feel like we’re playing with house money, if we lose this was still a magical season. Alex Smith’s redemption is over with, he doesn’t have to win another game this year to prove anything to anyone. But I do feel like we got this. If not, we have a coach and a team that is a receiver or two away from being a mini-dynasty………
Just went through some of Chuck’s old threads from October/November. They’re funny. Twin, Chuck and I (oh no! The 3 that are IN ON IT ALL!) were seeing January playoff games (in October). I’ve got a SB prediction on October 17th and don’t think I’m not re-posting that bad boy after we win on Sun……..
And then there are all of Denny’s posts…….
I’ll take peek a at my page “B” post on how far we thought they’d go- I know Flavor and I picked them to win the SB, that was on 12/21.
23-13 NINERS Alleykat “I fuckin Hate every thing about NY,from the Dickhead Media all picking NY in a romp,to all their STUPID NASAL Talking Fans”
30-16 Niners Flavor “…keys to this game will be our special teams making PLAYS and Frank Gore”
Alleykat going with New England over the Ravens…..27-16
New England wins 31-10. FLAVOR
Sorry Flav. Naw you guys were pretty good being ‘in on it all’ and all. Yeah I thought about da Supa Bowl…for about 15 seconds, then I had another drink truth be told…and fear took over, facing our recent history, etc…Never had the stones to put that in writing! Good fucking job ya’ll!!
Flav about “the 3 of us” it’s a long story and old chuck deleted the explanation which was really a private message to him posted very early AM: It was a bad joke about one of us really being Chuck’s “darkside” (not youse) and we 3 (chuck/darkside +me) would supposedly meet and get this shit straightened out. Joke was (bad I agree) only two of us would be meeting since “darkside’ was really chuck’s “alter ego” = submerged negative
personality.
Hey at the moment I wrote that shit it seemed hilarious. Now maybe not so much.
Conclusion: Smack da Gigantes like we know how, all this shit gonna be OVAH!
Cheers man