Photo: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty; Harry How/Getty
The San Francisco 49ers are NFC Champions!
The 49ers quickly took a commanding lead over the visiting Green Bay Packers on Sunday at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California. The home team kept veteran Green Bay quarterbackAaron Rodgersfrom scoring anything in the first half, and they entered halftime with a massive 27-0 lead.
Leading up to the championship game, both the 49ers and Packers enjoyed one of their best years in recent memory. They finished atop of the NFC, with the 49ers claiming the No. 1 seed thanks to San Francisco beating Green Bay 37-8 during their only regular-season meeting in November. During that matchup, Rodgers was sacked five times, according toESPN.
Despite the 49ers’ win during the season, they were cautious heading into Sunday’s game.
“We know it will be different,” 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahansaid. “We know that game got away from them early and that’s definitely not the team we’re going to see this week. Everyone knows how good Green Bay is, how good their coaching staff is, how good their players are, how good their quarterback is.”
Aaron Rodgers.Harry How/Getty
“I don’t think they’ve lost a game since then,” he added. “So I think that game really holds zero relevance to what’s going to happen this Sunday.”
Considering the team’s successful year, Sunday’s game was undoubtedly the most important of Garoppolo’s career.
But Garoppolo has come a long way in his three years in San Francisco — the 28-year-old famously was the back-up quarterback to New England Patriots starTom Bradyfrom 2014 to 2017.
“I haven’t personally talked to him but things I took away from watching him go through it was the consistency through all of it,” Garoppolo recentlysaid of what he learned from watching Brady. “That traces to your preparation during the week.”
The San Francisco 49ers, who will play in this year’s Super Bowl on Feb. 2.Sean M. Haffey/Getty
“At the time, they had a two-game lead after that game, plus obviously the tiebreaker, so just calculating things in my head, I figured if we got to the playoffs and made a run we’d probably have to beat them in their place at some point,” Rodgers, 36, recentlysaid of facing the 49ers. “Sure enough we’re back in a situation where we have to do it to get to the Super Bowl.”
“You realize playing against them how good they are,” he added.
But Rodgers, a two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl XLV champion, had experience on his side heading into the NFC Championship game. The only question that remained was whether it would be enough to hold off the surging 49ers on their home field.
Football fans now have two weeks to go for a new Super Bowl champion to be crowned.
source: people.com
