The New York Giants at the San Francisco 49ers. Now that is an old school matchup in a season of new wave offenses. In a season where offenses have had their way with the league, the 49ers have got themselves to an NFC Championship game with the league’s best defense, and the Giants only really started to look like themselves when their defensive front four began to fire on all cylinders. To get to this game each side had to knock off one of the league’s best offenses and the Giants had to take down the defending Super Bowl Champions in their own back yard. Now the two sides meet in a rematch of their Week 10 encounter with the winner headed to Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.
The game will feature several interesting matchups and some career defining opportunities for several players, notably both quarterbacks. Alex Smith and Eli Manning represent only the fourth time number one overall draft picks have started playoff games against each other in league history. While Manning stands on the edge of true greatness, Alex Smith is still trying to live up to his draft status. Last week he was able to go toe to toe with Drew Brees in the final moments of their game and eventually come out the winner, but this week represents a completely new challenge for him to rise and meet.
Last Meeting: New York Giants 20 – 27 San Francisco (Week 10, 2011)
The Giants met the 49ers at Candlestick earlier this season with the Giants coming off their big win vs the Patriots and the 49ers still riding high having won six straight. In a worrying portent for this game the Giants’ O-line was soundly destroyed as the 49ers were able to maintain a 7-point lead at the final whistle and claim victory. Not one of the Giants O-linemen graded positively in this game, and four of those five will be starting this week (albeit with David Diehl at a different position). On the other side of the ball the Giants were able to do some damage to the 49ers offense, almost completely shutting down the run game, but Alex Smith was able to do enough passing to get the lead, with the 49ers able to mount an impressive defensive stand late to keep hold of it. Both defenses had the upper hand in this game and that is a trend I would expect to see repeated.
David Diehl, you Remember the Smiths?
Manning has been fantastic recently, and unlike other quarterbacks putting up huge numbers, he is managing it despite very little help from his blocking up front, with several members of the Giants offensive line serving as major liabilities at the moment. The first time these two sides met David Diehl was taken to task by the duo of Justin Smith (primarily) and Aldon Smith. That was when Diehl was playing at left guard, but now he is the blindside protector out at left tackle, and if anything Aldon Smith has become even better as the season has gone on. These two 49ers have the skills and chemistry working together to terrorize the left side of the Giants’ O-line and apply a serious amount of pressure consistently on Manning throughout the game. No offensive tackle in the entire NFL has allowed more pressure on a per-snap basis than Diehl, who has the rather strange distinction of having been worse at guard than he was at left tackle, and then somehow worse again at left tackle than he was at guard. The bottom line here is that there is no way Diehl can control the Smith duo, and the Giants may have to think about how they are going to give him help in order to prevent this becoming a complete rout. Jake Ballard may end up seeing a lot of time next to Diehl or the Giants backs will be chipping on release.
The Haitian Sensation vs. Joe Staley
Joe Staley hasn’t had a bad season for the 49ers at left tackle, with his run blocking in particular being pretty good (as anyone who saw him get all that way downfield last week on Alex Smith’s touchdown run will readily agree). Jason Pierre-Paul represents a player on a high enough level to give him problems however. The Giants pass-rusher has been in scintillating form recently, and is only adding to his repetoire of pass-rush moves. Staley for his part has allowed seven sacks this season, which is a disproportionately high number given the total pressure he has surrendered. What that means is that when he does get beaten, it can tend to be immediate and unsalvageable pressure, which is the kind that can kill plays and drives. Pierre-Paul is likely to make a nuisance of himself in this game, and even if he doesn’t get home with pressure, he has developed the instincts to get himself in the throwing lane and bat down balls. The six batted balls he has this season trail only the Panthers’ Greg Hardy amongst 4-3 DEs and he managed that with significantly more pressure than Hardy did. Staley will need to be at his best in this game to combat a player who is in his best form and only improving. For their part, the Giants need Pierre-Paul to be at his best if they are to force Alex Smith into negative plays in the game.
Carlos Rogers the Key to the Passing Battle
In the last meeting between the two sides Carlos Rogers managed to come away with a pair of interceptions, which in truth may have been the difference between the two teams, but he didn’t receive a good grade from PFF, despite the picks. Both of the interceptions owed far more to Giants mistakes than they did to the play of Rogers, and outside of those plays, he surrendered eight catches from the 12 times he was targeted for 108 yards. The Giants’ receivers are in fine form at the moment and the matchups between them and Rogers in this game are likely to be a key encounter in how much joy they have on offense. With Rogers playing the slot for the 49ers he will likely see a lot of Victor Cruz, who spends more than 60% of his snaps in the slot. Cruz has the kind of route running and fakes that can gain huge separation in short areas, and Rogers was beaten by those moves on a couple of occasions in the last meeting. On the outside Hakeem Nicks seems to have overcome his drops and is a real physical presence for the Giants, who are happy to pitch him the ball and let him make yards after the catch if they sense a soft cushion from a cornerback. Rogers has had a very good season this year, and he is going to need a good game to prevent the Giants receivers from winning the matchup, whil the Giants need to avoid the mistakes that led to a pair of interceptions being thrown right to Rodgers the last time these teams met.
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