Tag: 49ers vs Packers

49ers inactives: LB Dre Greenlaw will play vs. Packers

The #49ers have no players ruled out due to injury vs. the Packers.

The 49ers don’t have any players ruled out due to injury for their divisional playoff matchup against the Green Bay Packers.

Linebacker Dre Greenlaw was listed as questionable on Thursday’s injury report with an Achilles issue. He will suit up Saturday night.

Here are the team’s inactives:

QB Brandon Allen (3rd QB)
LB Jalen Graham
OL Matt Pryor
WR Ronnie Bell
CB Sam Womack
DL Alex Barrett
DL T.Y. McGill

Barrett and McGill were both elevated to the active roster Saturday before the game. They’ll now get a full game check despite not suiting up, which is likely a key reason why the team elevated them without intending to play them.

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Panel of 9 NFL coaches and executives all pick 49ers to beat Packers

The Athletic interviewed 9 coaches and executives. They all have the 49ers winning on Saturday:

The 49ers are heavily favored to take care of the Green Bay Packers in their divisional playoff matchup Saturday at Levi’s Stadium. It’s not just the betting markets that like San Francisco. A panel of nine NFL coaches and executives surveyed by Jeff Howe unanimously chose the 49ers to win.

It’s worth noting the same panel all chose the Cowboys to knock off the Packers in the wild card round. Quarterback Jordan Love is playing exceedingly well and helped guide Green Bay to its blowout victory, but San Francisco offers a different challenge than Dallas – particularly on offense.

Here’s what one panelist said via the Athletic:

“No QB should be as confident as Jordan Love is going into the weekend,” an executive said. “He’s playing lights out right now, and that offense is rolling. Green Bay should be excited about the future with how much young talent is on that roster. I expect a good battle this weekend but ultimately see the Niners’ run game and front seven taking over to win. Green Bay is still suspect on defense, and I have my doubts they will be able to control the game at any point.”

It’s clear the Packers swayed Howe’s group of experts with their dominant showing in Dallas. They didn’t do enough that any expect an upset, but the ‘close game’ theme was common among them.

The 49ers are 9.5-point favorites which means sports books don’t think the game will be as competitive.

Game script is going to determine a lot of how much Green Bay can stick around and make Saturday’s game interesting. If Love keeps playing at a high level though and avoids turning the ball over, it certainly appears there’ll be points aplenty at Levi’s Stadium. That puts a ton of onus on the Packers defense to get stops, and that’s the ultimate advantage that should carry the 49ers to a win even in a close contest.

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Behind Enemy Lines: Are the Packers primed to pull a divisional round upset?

What’s happening with the Packers? We found out in a convo with our buddy Zach Kruse, the managing editor of the Packers Wire.

The 49ers and Packers on Saturday will meet for the 10th time in the playoffs since the 1995 season. San Francisco leads the all-time postseason series 5-4, and they’ve won the last four meetings between the clubs.

Most recently San Francisco ousted the Packers in the divisional round of the 2021 postseason, but despite the fact that game was just two years ago, the teams are both dramatically different.

To catch up on what’s happening in Green Bay, we touched base with the USA TODAY Sports Media Group editor most likely to win a Spartan Race, Zach Kruse of Packers Wire.

He answered a few questions for us and gave a prediction for Saturday:

A brief history of 9 49ers-Packers playoff matchups

A brief history of the #49ers and Packers playoff showdowns:

The 49ers and Packers are no strangers to playoff matchups. Saturday’s 5:15pm kickoff at Levi’s Stadium will be the 10th ever postseason meeting between the two clubs.

More notably it’ll be their sixth meeting this century and fifth since the 2012 season.

Green Bay dominated early on in the seemingly annual 49ers-Packers playoff matchups. They faced off in every postseason from 1995 through 1998. San Francisco only won one of those meetings though.

It’s been the 49ers’ turn to dominate over the last 20 years though. They haven’t lost a playoff game to the Packers since a 25-15 wild card loss in the 2001 season, and they’ve won the last four postseason matchups.

Here’s a quick rundown of the previous nine playoff showdowns between the 49ers and Packers:

 

Steve Wilks: Slowing Packers QB Jordan Love starts with stopping the run

The #49ers have a plan to slow down red-hot Packers QB Jordan Love … but will it work?

There aren’t many quarterbacks playing better than Packers QB Jordan Love. After an up-and-down start to the year, Love has stabilized significantly and over his last nine games he’s thrown for 2,422 yards with 21 touchdowns and only one interception. His mobility and big arm make him a threat to take over any game, and slowing him down is a tall task for the 49ers defense and their coordinator Steve Wilks.

Wilks on Wednesday in his press conference talked about how the team might slow down the Packers’ young signal caller. Given all of his physical gifts it won’t be easy to simply bottle him up, so Wilks pointed to stopping the Packers run game first.

“Well, I think the number one thing is we have to try to stop this run to try to make them one-dimensional,” Wilks said. “They’re very effective running a ball. I think it just opens up the play action. That’s where you see him being extremely effective in taking the shots down the field and finding an open receiver. So, that’s number one. Then again, we’ve just got to try to mix things up on him a little bit to give him something to think about and figure out where he needs to go with the ball.”

There weren’t a lot of areas where Love struggled this year. He was dynamite on play action though.

Pro Football Focus gave Love the 10th-highest grade overall on play action throws this season. He completed 72.4 percent of his play action passes, averaged 9.7 yards per attempt, and tossed 11 touchdowns against just three interceptions.

Those numbers are stellar, especially up against his non-play action stats. On straight dropbacks Love’s completion rate dips to 61.9 percent, his YPA plummets to 6.6, and he posted 24 TDs with 8 INTs.

Stopping the run isn’t enough to make play action ineffective. Packers running back Aaron Jones is an extremely talented player who the 49ers will need to account for regardless of how productive Green Bay has been on the ground. A good RB forces defenses to respect the play fake, which moves defenders out of throwing lanes and allows for easier completions.

Wilks’ point about making the Packers one-dimensional is the key, but they have to do that via game script. Winning on first down and getting an early lead are two quick ways to push Green Bay into obvious passing situations where play action becomes a less effective means of bending defenses to an offensive play caller’s will.

This, of course, will be the 49ers’ plan. Given how Love is playing though it may not matter. He’s been excellent in virtually any situation over the last half of the season. Pushing Green Bay into a one-dimensional version of its offense would be a good start though, and then the 49ers’ defensive success may just come down to whether they can win individual reps.

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49ers 1st practice report of playoffs: Only 3 players out with injuries

The #49ers were only missing three players in their first practice of the postseason:

The 49ers on Tuesday returned to action to begin their on-field preparations for the postseason. They took part in a couple practices during their bye week, but those didn’t require any practice participation reports.

Tuesday’s session offered a look at just how healthy San Francisco is heading into its first playoff game of the year. Only three players will miss the session, and two of them are expected to be back in practice Wednesday.

Here’s a look at the practice participation report for the 49ers on Tuesday:

Kyle Shanahan wasted no time preparing for Green Bay Packers

Kyle Shanahan didn’t wait for the clock to hit 0:00 to begin prepping for the Packers.

49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan didn’t subscribe to the saying “it ain’t over til it’s over” when it came to preparing for his team’s divisional playoff game.

San Francisco had four different possible opponents, but Green Bay’s 48-32 drubbing of the Dallas Cowboys eliminated all questions about who the 49ers would play Saturday at Levi’s Stadium. Their throttling of the Cowboys also gave Shanahan a little bit of a head start on preparing.

“We were already in (the facility), so we were doing it that day,” Shanahan said. “We had mixed in a little bit earlier in the week hitting up a couple teams, but started really focusing on them halfway through the second quarter. Then they scored at the end of the second quarter so I kinda did both at halftime. And then third quarter I was set on one team.”

Green Bay made life easy for the 49ers. If the Packers won they’d be San Francisco’s opponent. By going ahead 27-0 in the first half it left little in doubt, but they really put the game out of reach by going ahead 34-10 more than halfway through the third quarter.

It was an impressive showing by the No. 7 seed Packers, which became the first No. 7 seed to ever win an NFL playoff game. Any additional prep time the 49ers could get will only be helpful in trying to slow one of the NFL’s hottest teams.

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49ers record in every playoff round: History on SF’s side in divisional matchup vs. Packers

Here’s how the #49ers have fared in every postseason round:

The 49ers did enough in the 2023 regular season to secure a first-round bye that let them rest heading into the divisional round. They also get homefield advantage in their two games leading up to the Super Bowl.

Jumping straight to a home game in the divisional playoffs is a great sign for the 49ers. They’ve historically been outstanding in their home divisional games, amassing a 15-3 record in those contests, including each of their last five at either Candlestick Park or Levi’s Stadium.

In their pregame release, the 49ers issued a look at their record by playoff round. Here’s how they’ve historically fared in every postseason round:

 

NFL playoff schedule: 49ers vs. Packers date and kickoff time set

The #49ers and Packers kickoff date and time is set:

The 49ers and Packers have a kickoff time.

San Francisco will host Green Bay at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday, Jan. 20 at 5:00pm Pacific Time.

They’ll follow the 1:30pm Pacific Time kickoff between the Houston Texans and either Baltimore or Kansas City.

On Sunday it’s the Philadelphia-Tampa Bay winner at Detroit for a 12:00pm Pacific Time kickoff. Then the late kickoff Sunday will be either the Chiefs at Bills, or Pittsburgh at Baltimore. That late kickoff is at 3:30pm Pacific Time.

If the 49ers beat the Packers and move on to the NFC championship game, they’ll host the winner of the Lions vs. Buccaneers/Eagles game at 3:30pm on Sunday, Jan. 28.

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Raheem Mostert’s huge NFC championship game still haunts Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers is still mad at Raheem Mostert for the RB’s monster 2019 NFC championship game performance.

Aaron Rodgers has accomplished a ton in his Hall-of-Fame NFL career, but the 49ers have been directly responsible for keeping him from having even more success. One of the times they stood in his way came in January of 2020 when Raheem Mostert spearheaded a 37-20 win over Rodgers’ Packers in the NFC championship game at Levi’s Stadium.

The former 49ers RB posted 29 carries for 220 yards and four touchdowns in San Francisco’s NFC championship game victory. Rodgers still hasn’t gotten over Mostert’s performance in the win.

In a clip shown on the in-season edition of ‘Hard Knocks’ on HBO, which features Mostert’s current team the Miami Dolphins, Rodgers is shown chatting with Mostert after Miami’s 34-13 win over the Jets on Black Friday.

ESPN’s Nick Wagoner posted the video clip on Twitter:

Rodgers after playfully shoving Mostert says, “I’m still mad about a few years ago.”

It’s not made explicitly clear that Rodgers is talking about the 2019 NFC championship game, but it’s hard to believe he’s referring to anything else. Mostert was injured and not playing the three times the 49ers and Packers faced off after that NFC championship game.

Escaping Mostert may not be easy for Rodgers since they’re in the same division now. Having to face a reminder of the 2019 NFC championship game twice a season may make the loss a little harder to get over for the former Packers QB.

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