The last time the San Francisco 49ers reached the NFL playoffs, they rallied from 24 points down to stun the New York Giants in a wild-card game neary nine years ago.
Now, the Niners are about to play one of their biggest games since — and most meaningful at home — as the Giants visit the Bay Area again. Tomorrow, when the teams meet at Candlestick Park, the NFC West-leading Niners could take another step toward clinching their division and a postseason berth. A win also would go a long way toward securing a first-round bye.
“It’s going to show where we belong,” 49ers tight end Delanie Walker said. “I think we are an elite team in the NFL. Both [teams] got chances to be big in this league.”
Photo: AFP
The matchup features two of the NFC’s hottest clubs: San Francisco are 7-1 and New York 6-2, a pair of division leaders looking to lock up a playoff spot as soon as possible.
San Francisco’s players would like to show everybody still doubting them that this team are for real. The 49ers hold a five-game division lead and have won six straight since a 27-24 overtime defeat to the Cowboys in Week 2.
The Giants are riding high after a 24-20 comeback win at New England in which Eli Manning threw a one-yard touchdown pass to Jake Ballard with 15 seconds left — reminiscent of that Manning-led final drive when the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2008.
Photo: EPA
There will be no letdown this week for New York with another tough game on the schedule, the Giants promise.
“I think we’re pretty focused,” linebacker Michael Boley said. “It boosts [our confidence] up some. At the same time, as a team, we’re more critical of ourselves than anybody would think. We took a lot of time to look at the things that we did wrong last week and tried to get them corrected going into this week.”
Manning has led five comeback wins, while Alex Smith has rallied San Francisco in three of the 49ers’ four road victories. Smith should expect to face pressure against a team that have forced at least one turnover in 21 straight regular-season games. Defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul has a sack in five consecutive games.
One of New York’s biggest challenges will be slowing down running back Frank Gore, who has a franchise-record five straight 100-yard games. Gore’s 7,196 career yards rushing leaves him 149 from passing late Hall of Famer Joe Perry (7,344) for the most in 49ers history. The Giants have allowed four 100-yard rushers this season.
A month ago, everything favored the New England Patriots in their divisional brawl with the New York Jets. New England won, handing New York their third straight loss.
Rex Ryan’s Jets have turned things around since, winning three in a row thanks to a bruising defense — exactly what New England have struggled against recently and could have trouble with again tomorrow at the Meadowlands.
The Patriots have dropped successive games to the the Pittsburgh Steelers and Giants, both of whom got very physical with Tom Brady’s receivers in press coverage, then let loose the pass pressure up front.
Still, the Patriots almost never lose three in a row; the last time was in 2002.
“We know what this game represents,” Ryan said. “We’re not afraid to talk about it. It’s not one of those: ‘Well, if we don’t, there’s still a lot of season left.’ We’re approaching it like we have to have this game. We want to win our division. We think it goes through New England.”
Elsewhere, with nobody on a bye, it’s Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, Baltimore at Seattle, New Orleans at Atlanta, Detroit at Chicago, Buffalo at Dallas, Denver at Kansas City, Houston at Tampa Bay, Jacksonville at Indianapolis, Arizona at Philadelphia, Tennessee at Carolina, Washington at Miami and St Louis at Cleveland.
On Monday, Minnesota are at Green Bay.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set