Niners vs Packers (in Lambeau for the NFC championship)

Originally posted by okdkid:
Regarding the Saints: They are pedestrian on the road.

Currently they're 3-3 on the road. When they've won, it has been by an average of 6 points.

They won by 13 at Jacksonville, 3 at Carolina and 3 (in overtime) at Atlanta.

That is not a team that will be favorites to beat SF in SF.

Saints scare me more than GB because it's about matchups. We do NOT match up well against a guy like Sproles. You can't really game plan against him. GB doesn't have that unconventional player besides their QB.

He's done well against 3-4 defenses by going 3 and 4 wide, forcing them to either cover with LBs (like Pittsburgh in the SB) or shift to a sub package.

The Pittsburgh Nickel D was very average last season. Their best players are LBs that are not strong in coverage.

Where the 49ers differ is that in our sub, we move our 2 best linemen (Smith and McDonald) inside, bring in our best pure passrushers (A. Smith and A. Brooks) at DE, and keep our best defenders (Willis and Bowman) in the game. We lose nothing against the run and still have great coverage ability with even better pressure generation.

Rodgers hasn't played a defense like ours, ever. This unit is abnormally fast,stout vs. The run and capable in coverage...that will serve them well against the Packers.

Any Given Sunday.....

Originally posted by Legbreaker:
He's done well against 3-4 defenses by going 3 and 4 wide, forcing them to either cover with LBs (like Pittsburgh in the SB) or shift to a sub package.

The Pittsburgh Nickel D was very average last season. Their best players are LBs that are not strong in coverage.

Where the 49ers differ is that in our sub, we move our 2 best linemen (Smith and McDonald) inside, bring in our best pure passrushers (A. Smith and A. Brooks) at DE, and keep our best defenders (Willis and Bowman) in the game. We lose nothing against the run and still have great coverage ability with even better pressure generation.

Rodgers hasn't played a defense like ours, ever. This unit is abnormally fast,stout vs. The run and capable in coverage...that will serve them well against the Packers.

Also, our 3rd and 4th CB's...well...one can be a starter and the rookie, Culliver can handle himself well.

It's weird how we sort of over rate our offense and don't see the perspective outside looking in but under rate our defense while outsiders are amazed by how dominant our Defense really is.

The key factor will be that our offense can't turn it over, which GB THRIVES upon. They are risky on jumping the routes.

If the Niners have to play in GB in January they have a snowballs chance in hell of winning that game. The Packers have hands down the best home field advantage in the League come December.

The Packers don't care to establish the running game, so our defenses strength is of no concern to the Packers. Our weakness is their strength. Rogers is playing QB like none have seen. Our defense is good, but weak against the pass.

Also while their defense is average statistically speaking, they intercept the ball a LOT (leading the league as I type this and most the year).

The Niners had a cake walk of a situation playing the Ravens on Thanksgiving by way of comparison. The only way we advance to the SB imo is if we are able to get the 1st seed and with the Packers win over the Giants I just don't see that happening, assuming no major injuries of course.

We WILL have to pass and a LOT to keep up with the Packers, even them playing our stout defense. I have been impressed with Alex this year, but am not eager to press our luck with Alex chucking a frozen rock around Lambeau.


You posters with confidence in regard to facing the Packers haven't watched them play much this season. Anyone who has watched them a lot knows their team is just a muuuuch better team at this point. Aaron Rodgers is doing things we've not seen done.

Once again the Packers have a HoF QB who is going to single handedly rob the Niners out of a few more SB trophies. I just don;t see our, or any, defense that can stop that man playing the way he has this season.

Originally posted by FL9er:

destroy that man!

Originally posted by 80849er4life:
Any Given Sunday.....

Originally posted by LBSI9ers:
We gotta hope for freezing freezing weather. I think we have the exact formula to win against GB. We just need help slowing down their air attack. If the weather forces teams to run, we win in a landslide.

Rodgers throws well in freezing cold. It has little to no affect on their passing game.

Saints could be darkhorse in all this btw....don't count your beans just yet.

Originally posted by ninerfreak:
Saints could be darkhorse in all this btw....don't count your beans just yet.

If the playoffs started today, the only way the Saints play GB is after beating us. GB would get the winner of Dallas vs Chicago, assuming the Saints were to beat Atlanta.

If the Niners want to get to the SB, we would either have to play GB in GB, or hope that GB lost to Dallas or Chicago and I just don't see that happening.

Spose anything is possible tho huh?

Revenge for '97. 9ers are going to go there and take it to the pack.

In boxing they say the truly great fights were borne of fighters having contrasting styles. I'd say that applies here quite well. If the Niners and Packers meet up it's essentially your unstoppable force vs. immovable object on the football field.

What scares me:

The Niner's secondary and Rogers moving out of the pocket. The DB's are pretty aggressive and I can see them giving up 2 or 3 big plays that could decide the game. I like the matchup between the front 7 of the Niner's defense versus the Packers O-line, but I still don't see them putting Rogers on the ground more than a couple of times with the ball in his hands.

Alex Smith wilting under the pressure of a hostile crowd and bad conditions. Harbaugh has done magnificent work in minimizing Al's mistakes, but until he performs like this over more than a whole season, I will worry that he'll collapse when the pressure is at its highest.

The mysterious bounces at Lambeau Field. I don't think I've seen the Niners win in that building in my 30 years on this planet. Been some close games, but things always seem to go the Packers' way in that arena. I hate it.

What encourages me:

The Packers' defense is nothing special and the 49ers are better suited to play in inclement weather than most anybody with a power rushing attack and short passing game. They've been good enough to win games, obviously, but the offense has bailed them out repeatedly, like against the Giants for instance. The Niners haven't given up more than 24 points (in OT against Dallas) to any team so far this year. The Packers, conversely, have given up 23 or more points in 7 of their 12 games this year.

Special teams and the field position battle. Andy Lee is the best in the biz and Akers has been in nearly every game this year. Furthermore, Akers has kicked in sh*tty weather for most of his career booting the ball around Philly until now. Then you have Ted Ginn who has been very valuable in his role both for his yardage and just being a reliable catcher of kicks (but not passes). It wasn't that long ago that the Niners had more muffs than Hugh Hefner and paid for it dearly.

I have faith in Jim Harbaugh. He got outfoxed by his brother, but I sure haven't seen him get outcoached at any other point of this season. I also think that there's still a lot of mystery to what he's cooking up offensively purely because there's just no tape on them to go off of. Not one of the offensive players is having an outstanding year. Only Frank has had a run of exceptional productivity but that's more or less tapered off in the past few weeks and we're seeing more guys get involved. I think a healthy Braylon Edwards could be an excellent addition to the post-season rotation and provide even more ambiguity to where the offense will run through.

All that being said, as much as I want to believe the Niners could march into Lambeau Field in January and slay the Goliath, I just don't see it happening. The team's too new to success, too green offensively, and just way ahead of schedule for a championship run. Anything could happen, but the Packers have been there before and in a tight game you need some cornerstones to rely on to make plays. The Niners don't have those yet and that ultimately will be the difference maker.

Packers are playing very good football. They are playing very similar to the 2007(?) Patriots. There defense was irrelevant, because their offense could score more points than you. Regardless of how good your defense is, the Packers have shown that they can consistently score more points than their opponent. It seems like every time a team runs up the score, GB is right with them and always manages to come out on top.

Our offense doesn't score a lot of points, so that could be very problematic.

Originally posted by WINiner:

Originally posted by LBSI9ers:
We gotta hope for freezing freezing weather. I think we have the exact formula to win against GB. We just need help slowing down their air attack. If the weather forces teams to run, we win in a landslide.

Rodgers throws well in freezing cold. It has little to no affect on their passing game.

Whatever effect it does have will be magnified several times for our offense. But we do have the better running team. GB is good against the pass...but bad against the run...I think we are a bad match up for them even though I think they are the better team overall. Kinda like AZ all those years when they were good and we sucked but still beat them.

Definately winnable. They play at home so you have to give them the edge.


All that said, I'm still hoping against hope that they lose 2 more games..one against the Lions.

Originally posted by WINiner:
If the Niners have to play in GB in January they have a snowballs chance in hell of winning that game. The Packers have hands down the best home field advantage in the League come December.

The Packers don't care to establish the running game, so our defenses strength is of no concern to the Packers. Our weakness is their strength. Rogers is playing QB like none have seen. Our defense is good, but weak against the pass.

Also while their defense is average statistically speaking, they intercept the ball a LOT (leading the league as I type this and most the year).

The Niners had a cake walk of a situation playing the Ravens on Thanksgiving by way of comparison. The only way we advance to the SB imo is if we are able to get the 1st seed and with the Packers win over the Giants I just don't see that happening, assuming no major injuries of course.

We WILL have to pass and a LOT to keep up with the Packers, even them playing our stout defense. I have been impressed with Alex this year, but am not eager to press our luck with Alex chucking a frozen rock around Lambeau.


You posters with confidence in regard to facing the Packers haven't watched them play much this season. Anyone who has watched them a lot knows their team is just a muuuuch better team at this point. Aaron Rodgers is doing things we've not seen done.

Once again the Packers have a HoF QB who is going to single handedly rob the Niners out of a few more SB trophies. I just don;t see our, or any, defense that can stop that man playing the way he has this season.

If we try to play Packer ball then we lose big. If we play 49ers football we will win. Look, we have a bend-but-don't-break style D. That mean we take away the big play (something GB lives on). That means we will give you the underneath because our LB's play the pass well. That means we don't have to rely on the blitz because our front gets decent preasure. All that translate into, yes, a lot of yardage against our secondary but little points against our D as a whole. There's a reason why our D ranks 1st in the NFL for fewest points allowed per game (13.4), 1st in total points allowed (161), 1st in the league for rush yards per game (71.8), 2nd in INT's (16), 1st in fumbles (12), 1st in total takeaways (28), 4th in the league for yards per game (303.4), and 4th in the league in total defense. There is a reason Carlos Rogers is 4th in the league with 5 INT's and Deshon Goldson if tied for 5th with 4. Our D wouldn't be so good if our pass D was as bad as people are making it to be. So the stats against our pass D is more of a trap for opposing teams than a weakness. GB has NOT played a REAL defense that will make the pay for being one dimensional like we will.

I think people are flat wrong when they say we will have to pass a lot to beat GB. Just like every other team thus far they are going to have to prove they can score on us, period. Its sad that people who call themselves fans have such little faith in the 49ers dispite what they have shown the world this season . The 49ers deserve better support than what they are getting from some. From what I've seen when we play OUR game we win. Every good team has it's catapult year and this is ours back to respectability . Keep in mind that before the Saints won the SB NOBODY thought they would do anything in the payoffs. I remember the Patriots stinking up the joint. There was a time when the Packers were just crap (remember Don Majkowski?). I just wish other so-called fans really look at this team for what it is THIS year and stop judging the 49ers by years past or what other teams have done against average defenses.