Packers-49ers Playoffs: Comparing Common Opponents
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers own the Dallas Cowboys. The San Francisco 49ers have owned the Packers. At least in the playoffs.
The teams met four times in the postseason when Aaron Rodgers was Green Bay’s quarterback. The 49ers won all four games. That includes the 2019 NFC Championship Game, a 37-20 blowout that was about as lopsided as Green Bay’s win over Dallas on Sunday, as well as 13-10 at Lambeau Field in 2021, when the Packers were the No. 1 seed.
The Matt LaFleur-led Packers won regular-season matchups in 2020 and 2021 at San Francisco, but his team will need to rise to the occasion on Saturday night against the team favored to win this year’s Super Bowl.
“I think we just continue to take it one day at a time and try to get better each and every day and attack the process the right way,” LaFleur said on Monday. “Certainly, we know we’re going against one of the elite teams in the National Football League, certainly the class of the NFC.
“They’ve got a lot of the same players they’ve had for a few years now, and they’ve added some other freak shows over there. We know it’s a great challenge, but it’s a great opportunity, as well. That’s exactly how we’ll approach it. We’re going out there to win a football game and we know we’re going to have to play our best ball.”
The teams did not play each other this season but they’ve had several common opponents.
The 49ers went 5-2 in those games. With an asterisk. The Rams beat the 49ers 21-20 in Week 18, a game in which neither team played its key starters.
The Packers went 3-4 in those games, though two of the wins came at Minnesota in Week 17, where the 49ers lost, and at Dallas in the wild-card round.
Here are the common-opponent matchups.
Pittsburgh Steelers
49ers: Win, 30-7 (away)
Packers: Loss, 23-19 (away)
Los Angeles Rams
49ers: Win, 30-23 (away); Loss, 21-20 (home)
Packers: Win, 20-3 (home)
New York Giants
49ers: Win, 30-12 (home)
Packers: Lose, 23-19 (away)
Dallas Cowboys
49ers: Win, 42-10 (home)
Packers: Win, 48-32 (away)
Minnesota Vikings
49ers: Loss, 22-17 (away)
Packers: Lose, 24-10 (home); Win, 33-10 (away)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
49ers: Win, 27-14 (home)
Packers: Lose, 34-20 (home)
Obviously, one of Green Bay’s common-opponent wins came last week against Dallas. Much was made of the fact the Packers became the first No. 7 seed to win their wild-card matchup, though the 14-team playoff format began in 2020, so it’s not a long history.
Under the expanded playoff format, only the No. 1 seed receives a first-round bye. The No. 1 seed is 4-2 in the divisional round. Both losses came in 2021, when San Francisco won at Lambeau Field and Cincinnati won at Tennessee.
The Packers have momentum with four consecutive wins. Having not played against the Rams in Week 18, 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy hasn’t played in a few weeks. Does he fear he’ll be rusty?
“That’s something that I brought up to Kyle (Shanahan) and then he brought up some really good points just in terms of the preseason not getting a whole lot of reps and snaps and then going into Pittsburgh and playing well enough to win,” Purdy said a couple weeks ago. “Same with the bye week, coming back and having a good performance against Jacksonville.
“So, that’s something that feels good to go back and remind myself about. Not only that, I’m going to be practicing against really good defense, obviously our guys, for the next couple weeks too. It’s not like I’m going to be sitting on the couch. Whoever we end up playing in our first round, we’ll be ready for it.”
