Many expect San Francisco 49ers fans to be well-represented at SoFi Stadium this weekend during the NFC Championship Game matchup against the Los Angeles Rams. Will it be a repeat of the Week 18 contest when The Faithful seemed to take up most of the seats at the Inglewood complex?
The red and gold in the stands created problems for the home-team Rams. It felt more like a home game for the visiting 49ers, leading many to jokingly label SoFi Stadium as Levi's South. The Rams offense even had to use a silent count because of the distracting noise.
"It was a tough environment for us to communicate in really the whole second half," Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford said after the game, per ESPN.
49ers players and coaches loved it, though. They'll take any advantage they can get in a game, and seeing that much red and gold in the stadium was significant.
"The Faithful, they travel tremendously," quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo said before Wednesday's practice. "When you can get your fans behind you like that on a road game—we knew it before the game even started. There was a lot of red. You could see it. But once we started making plays and they started getting loud, it just changes the momentum of the game, I think."
"And you can feel it on the sidelines. It's not something that you can really put your finger on, and you can't see specifically, but you can feel it, you can hear it, and our team responds well to that."
The Rams have made efforts to prevent a repeat of the 49ers fan invasion during the regular-season finale. The team tried to limit ticket sales by region, but that didn't stop sales on the secondary market. The Rams have pleaded with their season ticket holders not to sell their tickets.
We'll find out on Sunday if their efforts have any effect. The 49ers quarterback, however, is hoping to see a lot of friendly faces in the seats as the Bay Area squad looks to return to the Super Bowl for the second time in three years.
"So hopefully, The Faithful will be out there loud and proud, and I know they're trying," Garoppolo said.