Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers believes most of the pressure will reside in the home locker room during Sunday’s NFC Championship Game in San Francisco.
The underdog Packers got blown out in the first meeting between the two teams, and Las Vegas has already picked the 49ers as heavy betting favorites to win Sunday and advance to Super Bowl LIV.
Rodgers and the Packers are playing with house money.
“I think if you look at this game, they’re favored by 7.5 (points), so they’re expected to hold court and win,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “People know how we played last time. If you look at pressure, the pressure is in a certain place, and we should be nice and loose.”
The top-seeded 49ers delivered a convincing 37-8 win over the Packers on Nov. 24. They’re now hosting the conference title game after dominating the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Divisional Round.
The Packers have won six straight games, including Sunday’s win over the Seattle Seahawks, but few outside Green Bay are expecting them to go into San Francisco and upset the 49ers, arguably the most complete team in football.
The pressure might be on the 49ers, but winning the rematch will be a tremendous challenge for the visitors. Not only did the 49ers dominate the Packers in the first meeting, but they’ve since returned several starters, including edge rusher Dee Ford, linebacker Kwon Alexander and left tackle Joe Staley, who all missed the Week 12 matchup.
The 49ers are deep, talented and well-coached, with the NFL’s second-best scoring offense and a fast, aggressive defense that smothered the Packers six weeks ago.
Pressure is real, however, and the Packers will take any little advantage they can get.
Rodgers explained the need to stay calm and avoid trying to do too much, a potential stumbling point for each team on Sunday.
“The problem is when you make it bigger than it needs to be,” Rodgers said. “When you try to do too much. When you try and cover for somebody else in your own mind. That’s when the mistakes happen.”
The Packers committed plenty of self-inflicted mistakes in the first meeting.
Receiver Davante Adams feels the importance of the rematch but also believes the pressure is on the 49ers to repeat the performance and win a game everyone is expecting them to win.
“Nothing to lose, but a lot to lose,” Adams said Wednesday. “The pressure is really on them. They went out there and dominated us last game. We did not take care of business the way we should have. It just was not a good showing. We bottled up that feeling and we’re ready to convert that into something great.”
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