NFC Championship Game Thread: Giants vs. 49ers

[revo]

re-match of the 1990 NFC Championship Game.

As Onejayhawk said, raise your hand if you had this matchup. Heck, raise your hand if you had either team.

[JudeBaldo]

*raises hand* :-) I didn't think it would be easy, but I had faith the Niners would beat the Saints.

[Erik]

I thought it was quite possible for the Niners to beat the Saints, because the Saints are nowhere near as good on the road as they are at home, and had faced no defenses anywhere near as good as the Niners on the road.

Certainly didn't see the Packers losing, though.

[Judge Jude]

I liked the 49ers (was surprised how tough it was, after I had ripped the Saints' road performance this season), and gave the Giants at least a shot.

Enough 6 seeds, plus the Arizona Cardinals (who were even worse), have either won the Super Bowl or come ohso close in recent years that the NFL has become a lot like MLB or NHL - if not a total crapshoot, it's close.

Only the NBA has an important regular season anymore, it seems.

The byes always seemed to be crucial in the NFL, but current parity seems sometimes to make the scrappy fighter better off than the pampered team....

[revo]

Enough 6 seeds, plus the Arizona Cardinals (who were even worse), have either won the Super Bowl or come ohso close in recent years that the NFL has become a lot like MLB or NHL - if not a total crapshoot, it's close.

Only the NBA has an important regular season anymore, it seems.

The byes always seemed to be crucial in the NFL, but current parity seems sometimes to make the scrappy fighter better off than the pampered team....

There aren't any #6 seeds in the Championship games.

[Judge Jude]

True. The Giants won the 6th-most games in the NFC this season, which is nothing at all like the point I made that included a terrible Cardinals team that also was a 4 seed like the Giants this year in spite of their record.

[revo]

True. The Giants won the 6th-most games in the NFC this season, which is nothing at all like the point I made that included a terrible Cardinals team that also was a 4 seed like the Giants this year in spite of their record.

I'm unsure of your point here.

Did the "tied for 6th best in wins" 10-6 Packers not win the Super Bowl last year?

In '07, a 10-6 team also knocked off a 16-0 team.

The 1988 49ers, also considered a "great" team, went 10-6 and won the title.

The problem is NFL history anoints the Super Bowl champ as "great." The team many consider to have the greatest defense of all time, the 2000 Ravens, actually lost 4 games. Hard to believe they were a Wild Card team, and they didn't even win their division! And the team that shouldn't have been there - the '00 Giants -- also had the same record?

[Judge Jude]

My point was that almost any team that makes the playoffs, in most years these days, has a real shot at getting to/winning the Super Bowl. Including last year's Packers and this year's Giants.

That was NOT usually true more than 20 years ago.

I don't know of any 10-6 team ever that was considered "great." The 2007-08 Giants won an amazing game against the Patriots, but they lost 5 (almost 6) games by double digits.

"In '07, a 10-6 team also knocked off a 16-0 team."

I know - I was there.


In 2000, the offensively-challenged Ravens scored 333 pts and their Super Bowl counterpart Giants scored a mighty 328.
The Giants allowed merely 246 pts compared to the Ravens' apparently forgettable record-breaking 165.

They were about as similar that season as the Super Bowl result.

That defense was so extraordinary that it broke the "anyone can win" mold.

[JudeBaldo]

The 49ers lead the Giants 18-17 in historical match-ups. I'd like to see 19-17. :-)

[Erik]

The 2000 Ravens DID have one of the greatest defenses of all time. They also had a dreadful offense until Dilfer replaced Tony Banks at QB.

[JudeBaldo]

Ed,

What's the talk over there? The city feeling pretty confident?

Over here ... 49er fans are still aglow from the win over the Saints and thought the team would have to play Green Bay. Now that the NFC Championship Game will be played at the 'Stick, there's a smattering of Super Bowl talk.

Also, not sure how Eli feels about cold and mud, but forecasts call for a torrential downpour during the game.

[chancellor]

The 2000 Ravens DID have one of the greatest defenses of all time. They also had a dreadful offense until Dilfer replaced Tony Banks at QB.

Which improved it from dreadful to merely pathetic. But pathetic was good enough.

[Erik]

Also, not sure how Eli feels about cold and mud, but forecasts call for a torrential downpour during the game.

Is it going to be windy? He had some issues throwing in Meadowlands winds earlier in his career.

[JudeBaldo]

Is it going to be windy? He had some issues throwing in Meadowlands winds earlier in his career.

Having lived and worked in SF, you just never know.

[ironfist]

Ed,

What's the talk over there? The city feeling pretty confident?

Over here ... 49er fans are still aglow from the win over the Saints and thought the team would have to play Green Bay. Now that the NFC Championship Game will be played at the 'Stick, there's a smattering of Super Bowl talk.

Also, not sure how Eli feels about cold and mud, but forecasts call for a torrential downpour during the game.

Jude, Giants fans seem to be confident no matter who they're playing. All the talk last week was how the Giants were surely going to beat the Packers, and although that turned out to be the result, most reasonably-minded people didn't think it was a sure thing. So after beating the Packers handily, the city is very confident in the team's chances this weekend, and of course, callers on the radio are already talking about who they'd rather face in the Super Bowl, New England or Baltimore. I've heard a lot of people comparing this team to the 2007 Giants, so yeah, overall the city's confidence is very high.