The san francisco 49ers will face the green bay packers in a divisional round this weekend, aiming to win their fourth nfc championship game in five years under head coach kyle Shanahan.
San francisco is entering the game with a relatively clean slate of health, as they’re expected to return defensive tackle arik armstead, while christian McCaffrey has had three weeks off work to deal with his injuries.
They’ll face a packers team that is led by first-year quarterback jordan love, who won his first playoff game last weekend against the dallas cowboys, who entered the game as big favorites, and each one followed a pattern that isn’t often seen in the playoffs: the better quarterback loses.
For much of the season, cowboys quarterback dak prescott was named mvp, throwing for 4,516 yards, 36 touchdowns, and nine interceptions, while completing 69.5 percent of his passes.
In the game between the detroit lions and the los angeles rams, quarterback matthew stafford arguably played like a top-five quarterback down the stretch and was the best NFC signal-caller in my eyes this season. then, quarterback jalen hurts, who led his team to a super bowl in 2022 and was the MVP pick for the entire month of november in 2023, couldn’t get his team to the divisional round.
Of course, the difference is much more nuanced than the better quarterback losing.
THE TREND
We’re seeing that a better overall team has outperformed better quarterback play this season, at least in the NFC. Although jordan love had a great game against the cowboys, throwing for 272 yards and three touchdowns, green bay’s ability to run the ball and stop the ball encapsulated their victory.
Aaron Jones had an 118-yard and three-touchdown game, while cowboys running back tony pollard was limited to 56 yards on 15 carries in the lions game. detroit remained balanced throughout the lions game, passing 27 times with jared goff and running the ball 22 times on the ground with their duo of backs, while matthew stafford threw the ball 37 times for the rams, compared to 17 total rushes for the team.
In addition, detroit’s defense kept stafford and co. out of the endzone, as the rams only scored one touchdown in five trips to opponent territory. The buccaneers remained balanced, passing the ball for a total of 29 times, while the eagles shied away from the run early and never established that part of the game with d’andre swift, perhaps shining a light on a difference in this year’s playoffs.
Instead, i think the 49ers are favored in this year’s playoffs because they have the most complete team in the NFL. Not only has purdy produced a solid quarterback lineup this season, but they’ve also passed the ball on 48.7 percent of their games this season, second only to the baltimore ravens, who coincidentally have the no. 87 overall.
In the afc, there is only one seed. With christian mccaffrey at the helm, the 49ers know how to be balanced and run the football, and they have the resources to do so.
