The Grant Napear Show - January 15, 2013
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Despite having to travel on the road to play the Atlanta Falcons, the 49ers are in a good position to pull out a win on Sunday. The keys to getting over the hump, that is the NFC Championship Game, will be a mix of mental and physical. Both teams are solid and equally talented, but if San Francisco can control three things, they will find themselves one win away from the Lombardi Trophy.
The hottest name in sports is spiking 49er fever to a whole new level, and now the marketing madness begins for Colin Kaepernick.
When the New York Giants beat San Francisco last year in the NFC Championship Game, it was the 49ers' inability to make a big play offensively that was a big reason for the loss. The team used the off season to address this problem, and as they find themselves one win away from the Super Bowl, the offense looks nothing like the one that let them down in this very game a year ago.
After dismantling the Green Bay Packers on Saturday, the 49ers find themselves back in the NFC Championship Game. With the Falcons holding serve against the Seattle Seahawks, San Francisco will travel to Atlanta with one win standing in the way of both teams of a trip to the Super Bowl. By playing a Falcons team who ended the season as the number 1 seed, in the Georgia Dome, the 49ers will be the underdogs, but have to like their chances of pulling off the upset and moving on to the Super Bowl.
At 81 years old, John McVay has more stories, and more memories than most of us can ever hope of having. If you are a hardcore 49ers fan, then you know exactly who this man is, and was.
The game was close on the scoreboard for the first half, but in the second half, San Francisco dominated the Packers to set up their return to the NFC Championship Game to face either the Falcons or Seahawkss. It was a complete team effort, but in his first playoff game, Colin Kaepernick again proved that he is up to any challenge and lead the charge in an performance that may be the best ever by a quarterback.
With multiple Pro Bowlers on both sides of the ball, the match-up between the 49ers and Packers will not be lacking talent. Both teams are well coached, disciplined and hungry for a win. The difference in this game will come down to the attention to 3 key areas and some luck.
By beating the Packers in Week 1, in Green Bay no less, San Francisco should have plenty of confidence that they can beat the NFC North Champs again on Saturday. While the early season victory means nothing now, the fact that the game is in San Francisco does. The Packers have struggled outside of Lambeau this year, and can't be happy to have to go to San Francisco to try and keep their season alive.
Of all the things that resulted from the 49ers' first round bye, none could be bigger then the week off to rest. Due to the importance of the regular season finale, San Francisco had to play to win, and could not rest their starters, but were able to get some much needed rest while the Wild Card Series were played. The 49ers as a team are as healthy as they can be, and more importantly, the news on Justin Smith is good.
One of the major concerns for the 49ers as they prepare to take on the Green Bay Packers Saturday is the kicking game. For a team that has such a sound defense, three points can go a long way, and more times then not playoff games are decided by a last second field goal. As David Akers has regressed this season, the team signed Billy Cundiff to evaluate the teams kicking options, yet with the game less then a week away there has still been no decision made. This in camp battle doesn't figure to have a winner declared until right before the game, but with no clear favorite, the best option for the team is to deactivate Akers and go with the new guy.
With the Packers up first, the San Francisco 49ers will have a very difficult opponent to get past in order to make a trip back to the NFC Championship Game. Although the key to success in the game will start and end with stopping the Green Bay Offense, the 49ers will still need to score the ball, and that falls on the shoulder of Colin Kaepernick. The reason for Jim Harbaugh switching to Kaepernick in the middle of the season was for the first year starter to take them to the Super Bowl, and it's time for Colin to make his coach look like a genius.
When it was announced that Minnesota Vikings' quarterback Christian Ponder would be unable to play in the wild card match-up between Green Bay and Minnesota, the Packers booked their flight to San Francisco. Green Bay dominated their undermanned opponent, setting up what stacks up to be one of the best game of the playoffs, and a battle that could very well determine the NFC representative in the Super Bowl.
The perception around 49er Nation is that the team needs to get Vernon Davis back into the offensive flow if they want to have a chance at the Super Bowl. The is not completely accurate though. In fact his decrease statistically is actually a good thing as it points to a more balanced attack for a team that was one dimensional a year ago.
