Giants hope to avenge Week 10 loss to 49ers in NFC Title Game

 Image courtesy of NFL.com

The New York Giants, one loss away from missing this year’s playoffs altogether, are now one win away from the Super Bowl. They will be traveling to San Francisco to take on the 49ers, a team looking to advance to their first Super Bowl in 17 years.

Back then, the Niners were led by Hall-of-Famer Steve Young and, before that, arguably the best Quarterback to ever play the game, Joe Montana. This year, Alex Smith is at the helm. Known for his under-performance since being drafted first overall in 2005, he’s had a breakout year under first-year head coach Jim Harbaugh. If his consistently good, albeit not great regular season wasn’t enough to convince fans that have seen Smith fail time and time again the past six years, last week’s comeback against the New Orleans Saints to advance to the Conference Championship should have been. He showed the poise of a veteran, leading not one, but two fourth quarter touchdown drives with less than five minutes to play. This week, he has the opportunity to advance to the Super Bowl, something that many 49ers fans did not expect coming into the year, especially since they had kept Smith at QB. But along with their stellar defense, ranked fourth in the league, Tight End Vernon Davis, who caught two touchdown passes in last week’s victory, including the game winner with nine seconds to go, and Smith, the Giants are in for another tough test.

Last week, they went into Lambeau Field to face the 15-1 Green Bay Packers and many counted them out. They didn’t care and they took care of business more easily than anybody would have thought, beating the Packers 37-20. Led by Quarterback Eli Manning and Wide Receiver Hakeem Nicks, the Giants made quick work of Green Bay.

The team surprised many by even winning the division, a title thought to be won by the Dallas Cowboys or, the “Dream Team” Philadelphia Eagles, a nickname that, to this day, still infuriates me. They surprised even more by beating the Packers, but beating San Francisco will be much tougher, especially because of the Niners defense. The Packers were ranked last in the league, while San Francisco has one of the top defenses in the NFL.  

The Niners rushing game, led by Frank Gore, is also much better than Green Bay’s and New York’s Rush Defense has not been great this season, allowing over 121 yards/game. New York’s advantage comes in the passing game. While they have the worst rushing offense in the league, their pass offense is ranked eighth. San Francisco’s rush defense is the league’s best, but when it comes to pass defense, they’re average and if the Giants hope to win this game, they need to make sure to take advantage with Manning, Nicks and Wide Receiver Victor Cruz. But even so, the 49ers have the home crowd backing them, they have players hungry to make it to their first Super Bowl and even though they have an average pass defense, average isn’t bad.

The 49ers and Giants have history: it’s their eighth postseason battle since 1981, a record. The 49ers are 4-3 in the matchups. Their last meeting in the 2002 Wild Card round was a historic battle in itself, with San Francisco coming back from a 38-14 deficit to beat the Giants 39-38. This season, the Niners beat the Giants 27-20 in Week 10, a game that saw Eli Manning throw for over 300 yards and the 49ers offense drive down the field consistently, scoring 2 touchdowns and 4 field goals.

Manning is on a great run, and he has a chance to upend big brother Peyton in a little over two weeks if he can lead the Giants to victory on Sunday, but the fact is that last week he played well against the worst pass defense in the league. The week before, Atlanta’s offense made many mistakes. Some of it could be credited to the Giants defense, but a lot of it was due to bad play by the Falcons. I give the Giants credit; they’ve surprised many and have been playing their best football all year. But the 49ers are too. They’ve been playing their best football of the year… well, all year. Their three losses are by a combined 15 points, the worst of which was a 10-point loss at Baltimore on Thanksgiving Day. They’re a team that hasn’t let up all year, and they will not let up on Sunday, sending Eli Manning and Giants packing for home while they head to Indianapolis.

NY Giants 20

San Francisco 49ers 30