The NFC Championship Game matchup is set, the San Francisco 49ers will meet up with the Los Angeles Rams next Sunday at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood.
The two longstanding NFC West rivals have met twice a season since 1950. Sunday will mark only the second time in the two longtime NFC West rivals will meet in the playoffs. Their lone previous postseason matchup came in the NFC Championship game following the 1989 season with the 49ers winning 30-3 on the way to their fourth Super Bowl title. This is the game during which the continuous pressure from the San Francisco defensive line resulted in Rams quarterback Jim Everett falling to the ground untouched as defenders closed in around him.
San Francisco has dominated this series in recent years, winning the last six matchups dating back to 2019.
The 49ers dominated the first matchup this season, defeating Los Angeles 31-10 on Monday night football in week 10.
The two teams met up for the second time on the final Sunday of the regular season with a playoff berth on the line for San Francisco and Los Angeles looking to wrap up the NFC West.
San Francisco fell behind 17-0 but battled back, a Jimmy Garoppolo touchdown pass to Jauan Jennings sent the game into overtime. Robbie Gould connected on a 24-yard field goal following the opening drive of overtime and Ambry Thomas intercepted a Matthew Stafford pass to secure the 27-24 victory for the 49ers.
On Sunday the 49ers will be looking to win for the third time against the same opponent in a single year.
Since the 1970 merger, 20 teams have had to face a divisional opponent in the playoffs after beating them twice in the regular season. While 13 of those teams have gone on to win the third matchup only two have been able to pull it off on the road.
In 1999 the Tennessee Titans defeated Jacksonville twice during the regular season before defeating the Jaguars 33-14 in the AFC Championship Game.
The last occurrence of a team winning the third game on the road was in an NFC Wild Card game following the 2004 season when the Rams went to Seattle and defeated the Seahawks 27-20.
Give us your early predictions for Sunday.
Wow! It’s gonna be fun the watching Allen and Mahomes for many many years of rivalry.
You got to feel for Allen… he couldn’t have played any better than that and didn’t even get a chance to win in the end. Wow!
I hope we can develop Lance close to the play-making abilities of Allen or Mahomes.
This weekend felt like a real passing of the torch – 30, 40 somethings Brady, Rodgers exit the stage, maybe for good. Young guns now in the limelight.
There are 4 really good young quarterbacks in the AFC. Hopefully Lance will be able to join this group in the future.
I have a feeling Lance is 2 years away from being a starting QB. The question is will they make Lance starter next season when the rest of the team has the talent for a Super Bowl run or will they keep JG for one more year?
You have to move on from Jimmy.
I like him and I’m fine with him playing this year but the cap dictates it.
That cap needs to go up significantly for SF to field a complete team.
With the current cap and Jimmy’s contract on the books, the 49ers can’t even fill out the 53 man roster… even if they could sign all of them at league minimum, they would still be over the cap.
The problem is, among those 20 odd players they need to sign a few starters, and those players are not playing at league minimum.
The only way for Jimmy to stay, is if he significantly reduces his cap hit. Is there any way you see him doing that?
If they kept JG for next year, they restructure/extend his deal, bringing his 22 cap number down.
Then that makes him more tradeable in 2023 as he would have a team friendly deal for the team willing to trade for him.
IF the niners win the SB, you don’t get rid of your qb…or do you want to be the 00 Ravens?
I think winning the superbowl is the only way he has any chance of staying, and even then I would trade him if he fetched enough.
I’ve never been one that argued he is a bad qb and sf is winning in spite of him… as I think that is nonsense. That said, they have invested so much into Trey, and his rookie contract is about the only thing that allows them to overcome that loss of draft capital. As it allows them to fill in other holes with quality starters through free agency.
As for the 00 Ravens, Yes, I want SF to win the superbowl so I am fine with that. Especially given that SF already has their qbotf on their roster… that was not the case for Baltimore.
EmJay… who’s to say Jimmy will be healthy next season? I think you trade while the iron is hot. This team will lose some key pieces in depth next season. They won’t have the chance they have this season. I think it will be a small reload year next season with the Rookie (this year) starting next season to get his feet wet. I’m with some. Not th biggest fan of Jimmy unless it’s two minutes and we need a score, but he’s by far the best option this season. Trade Jimmy for the highest value scrape up the money for Deebo now, and use next years for Bosa. Those two signing a year early are huge.
Yeah, I think the reason you have to trade him is due to the team around him.
Getting that cap space lets them do things like resign Jordan Willis or Arden Key, sign another starting cb, and possibly Tartt. At that point you might have a Defense next year that is better than this years.
After that, you can really fill out your roster with draft pics.
That team could be much better all around than this one.
Thanks jack from Yt
Niners match up extremely well versus the Rams.
1. Rams are one dimensional. They cant run the ball versus our front 7. Akers fumbled 2x versus Bucs. Their only real weapon is Kupp. If we double Kupp and put Mosely on Odell, they will struggle to move the ball.
2. They can’t stop our running game and struggle to defend the middle of the field. Our strengths are running the ball and attacking he middle of the field.
3. Assuming Jimmy doesn’t throw more than 1 pick to Ramsey, we win comfortably 27-13
The other thing is that the Niner crowd at SOFI is more rowdy than Levis. Rams were complaining about noise after the week 18 game. It was so bad that Rams fans and players are imploring individuals and brokers not sell tickets to Niner fans. Meanwhile , Fred Warner is encouraging the faithful to show up to the game.
Early prediction:
49ers – 31
Rams – 21
Definitely going to be difficult to beat the Rams for the 3rd time this year. Rams have been playing on the edge of dirty their entire playoff run. The game against the Cardinals was very dirty by both teams. Reeder and Aaron Donald are playing with a very strong Gregg Williams vibe right now. With Jimmy G’s injured shoulder look for a Tony Siragusa style belly flop onto Jimmy by Aaron. And you know McVay has seen all the memes with Kyle Shanahan as his daddy. Rams haven’t been able to beat the 49ers with stategy and talent in a very long time so look for some questionable tactics. Hopefully the NFL keeps things clean.
The Rams are already restricting ticket sales to just Los Angeles area residents. I can’t remember the last time I heard something like this.
Rams Players’ wives (see Andrew Whitworth) are already taking to twitter to beg Rams fans not to sell their seats to 49ers fans.
Not a great display of confidence on their part. 😂
There are no true diehard Rams fans. It’s not like the Dodgers or Lakers who have built a fan base over decades in the same area. Trying to be a Rams fan is like trying to become best friends with a transient who’s on his way to the next city. The stadium will still have plenty of 49er Faithful and hopefully that means the Rams will have to go to a silent count again in their home stadium.
The Rams are already restricting ticket sales to just Los Angeles area residents.
LOL… the problem for them, lot’s of Niner fans living in LA
It’s gonna be fun seeing the red sea jerseys in the crowd!
LMAO this just keeps getting better:
https://twitter.com/jstaley74/status/1485438714616500228
Staley is the boss! Pretty funny😭😭😭
Dallas weakness – Penalties + Bad Time Management
Green Bay weakness – Special Teams
Rams weakness – Turnovers
If DeMeco Ryans is hired as a Head Coach somewhere else do the 49ers gain draft picks due to a minority hire? If so, any idea on the value of that pick?
yes, a 3rd rounder.
I can’t predict a score for this game. It’s very difficult to beat a team three times. Yes the Niners own them, but LA came out on fire their last three games. Including vs SF last outing. Can’t let them get hot fast. Need to set the tone very quickly. Hoping the last game taught the Niners not to get cocky because you’ve beaten them a lot. The problem with the Rams right now is they’re pretending to be bullies. They’re not built to do it for 60 minutes. You can’t just turn on that switch if it’s never been in you. They’ll try again when they come out. But it’s when the bigger badder team starts swinging back is when you find out you ain’t about that life.
The last couple of games have been close besides earlier this year. But they do own this team, it will be about execution.
This niner team doesn’t have the flash of the 19 team. But that team was missing a couple of big things this team has. Heart, tenacity, and never give up mentality. That 19 team was very good, but inexperienced through real adversity. The last half of the fourth in the Super Bowl showed that. This team didn’t have the luxury of being healthy and still having to fight, home field. Or being that unknown team. You bet your Arss. If this team gets that lead in the fourth again they won’t fold in the Super Bowl.
They’ve been doing the impossible all season. So I don’t see why they’d stop now. I don’t believe there is a team out there that can beat this team if they play their game for four quarters. Yes our QB can be a liability. But he owes us a flawless game. And hopefully that game is this sunday. Zero turnovers and a couple of TD’s would be great.
Oh and not letting the best receiver in football run right down the middle of your defense for a 70 yard bomb. That would help also. Lol
Can’t predict a score but as of now I can’t see LA bringing intensity for four quarters. So I’ll say Niners win. By a little or a lot its up to them.
Jimmy “R” Garoppolo is a WINNER! Remember the miraculous rabbit he pulled out of the hat against the Lambs three weeks ago, well the “R” stands for the Rabbit’s foot that he kept after pulling out the rabbit. If Tampa Bay would have won, Jimmy G would have asked Eli Manning to borrow his four leaf clover against TB12.
The real 49ers fans are going to say great team WIN Jimmy G, but some of the forty-whiner press corp or the fake phoney-niner fans are going to complain about Jimmy G. They are going to point out he threw an interception at the goal line and complain about his stats (11-19, 131 yards, 0 Tds, 1 Int). One can argue the receivers dropped four of his first four passes, and he would have been 15-19 with a possible TD, but I don’t want to go to an alternate universe to discuss would have, could have, should have nonsense. What happened was the receivers dropped them, and drops are part of the game just like interceptions. The 49ers won, so stop complaining.
I’m a Jimmy G fan because he’s a winner based on his win record (33-14 in the regular season and 4-1 in the post season). In Jimmy Ward’s press conference, he lambasts 49ers fans and announces that he trusts Jimmy G as well as his whole 49ers team are behind him, and emphasizes that he wins more games than he loses. He is as baffled as I am about why forty-whiner fans are unhappy even when they win.
On the opening drive, Aaron Rodgers led his team on a ten play, 69 yard TD drive. The Green Bay defense also did an outstanding job of keeping the 49ers offense from scoring a TD. Outside of the first Green Bay scoring drive, DeMeco Ryans and the 49ers defense made the necessary “in game” adjustments to double cover Davante Adams, and contain Aaron Rodgers and the rest of the Packers to only 10 points. In my opinion, the CBs did a better job on Davante Adams than they did in week three. I believe the bumper DB needed to BUMP the receiver off the line to disrupt the timing of the pattern and covered the underneath passes, and the double team DB covered the “over the top” passes. On a side note – the last 13 seconds of regulation in last night’s Chiefs and Bills game, the Bills defense allowed their Chiefs receivers to run free without being bumped or disrupted in their pass pattern. In those two plays that used up 8 or 9 seconds, they easily moved the ball into FG territory to eventually tie the game. Back to the 49ers vs. Packers game, the TV replay showed the 49ers double coverage on Adams (one DB is underneath and the other DB is over the top). Adams was probably the intended target, but because he was covered, QB Rodgers didn’t have time to find the 2nd or 3rd receivers causing the first sack in the Packers 2nd possession. In my opinion, the weather also affected the offense more than the defense because of the snow and chill factor. The 49ers special teams SHOWED up for this playoff game and the true unsung heroes of the game were Jordan Willis who blocked the punt, and Talanoa Hufanga who scored the TD. Cheers to the 49ers special teams for the win!
Just like pitchers are measured by their win-loss record and earned run average in the MLB, QBs in the NFL are also measured by their win-loss record, completion percentage, passer rating, etc… Sometimes great pitchers have bad games. For example, a pitcher pitches the minimum 5 innings, gives up 6 runs, but the offense scores 7. Thus, the pitcher had a poor outing, but still gets the win. This is what happened to Jimmy G against the Packers. He had a poor outing overall, yet made some key plays for first down, and still won the game because of the special teams made the plays necessary to win the game (block the Packers FG and later block the punt to score a TD.