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 
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
Just wondering, don’t we need The Catch names for Joe Staley and Issac Sopogaga?
no. that’d be too many *catch* games. KNBR is calling it “The Vernon Post” and I actually love that.
As much as I went bezerko over The Catch 2, it now seems oddly out of place in the history of the Niners since they lost the next game.
Shit, what are people calling Tai Streets catch from Garcia in the game against the Giants (where chaos ensued with the missed kick/interference/illegal man down field game)? It gets no name and no mention AT ALL from Niner historians……..
Plus, calling something _____2 is just boring and unimaginative….
I’m diggin’ The Vernon Post…….
As promised, checked the predictions from 12/21- Flavor and myself picked them to win the SB. No one else on that blog.
You guys are so smart!
I’d say there’s no doubt about your pick for them to go all the way at this point. First of all, they’re clearly the best remaining team out of the four teams, and after that win against the Saints, they look to be pretty much unstoppable. Of course, I picked the Raiders to go all the way as I do every year at the beginning of the season, but after the clusterfuck in Buffalo I had to rethink that prediction….
I made the pick 12/21. I can restore the page but that would cost you 100 dollars.
Well, I thought they’d meet the Steelers.And of course, they’re not there yet. But we won’t be seeing a Pizza Boy/T-Blow SB..
Tony’s paired with “your boy” Tiger at Pebble in a few weeks. It’s going to be goddamn downright embarrassing when Romo shoots 68 while Tiger spends his day on the beach looking for his balls amongst the seashells.
Him and the asshole Cowfuckers were made for each other. What a douchebag!
WTF is the deal with that “stop censorship” banner in the upper right-hand corner? It’s pissing me off. Censorship pissed off another man whose movie I just watched again this morning: “The People vs Larry Flynt.” Replace that banner with one of Larry’s girls. I’d even settle for a Courtney Love pic. Say what you will about that troubled girl, but she’s got a great rack.
You’ve got great taste in women.
Peter King of SI says Jim Harbaugh wins coach of the year hands down. Opinions?? I agree completely!
Unfortunately for the Ravens, they are going to get their asses handed to them, Pats 38-Ravens 17
Any twit can see Harbaugh is coach of the year.
And Peter King certainly qualifies…
Yeah, why are they even having a vote? Go 6-10 and then 14-3 on the brink of the SB? No one else should even get a vote…
Ps– just saw Roger Craig at lunch (with a hottie and they were sitting under his framed jersey which I though was a little lame). Anyway, I’ve taken this RC sighting as a hugely positive sign for tomorrow
John is not the offensive mind that his brother is. I think Flacco’s problems are as much with the coaching staff as they are with Joe. He is definitely capable of beating NE’s shit defense. He’s no
T-Blow.His last outing against the Pats he was 27-35 2 TD 285 YD 119.3 QBR. They lost in OT at NE but he clearly outplayed Brady.
24-20 Ravens
That game was played LAST October. Totally irrelevant.
Next you’ll be bringing up stats from the Eisenhower administration.
Like your Smith stats for 2005?
Pats defense is even worse this year, some of the worst since, well- the Eisenhower administration..
So are you guys praying for an off track tomorrow at the ‘Stick? I know the vast majority of horse players don’t like ’em at the track. Uneven surface, unknown variables, biases, races coming off the turf to the dirt and tons of scratches to deal with throughout the day.
I think the game will start off “fast and firm,” but I could see Bill Walsh Field being labeled as “muddy” come the second half. Looks like Ginn will be a no-go for tomorrow, so I’ll take “my boy” Kyle Williams as the “pick to click.” 6/66/1 and a couple of nice ST returns will work for me.
I picked ’em to beat beat New Orleans and head to the Super Bowl on 12/20 lol! Just sayin….
After watching them play ferocious at that Steeler game…one play at a time…wow.
If they play like that with NY in the house, there is no way NY has a chance.
Cool, then you would be the winner!