Packers Best Chance of Getting Past the 49ers in January? Hope Another Team Beats Them

Colin Kaepernick has matched Aaron Rodgers in two 49ers’ wins over the Packers.

I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about the Packers loss to the 49ers on Sunday.

Yes, it was a nice effort from the Packers. A lot of things didn’t go their way and they hung in until the end.

At the same time, I still have no doubt that the 49ers are the better team. Zip. Zero. Nadda. The 49ers are bigger, stronger, tougher and just plain better.

Doesn’t matter how hard the Packers scrapped to hang with them Sunday, why should I feel good when the 49ers continue to steamroll my favorite team?

Take a look at these numbers and try not to immediately dive out your window:

In their last 3 games against the Packers, the 49ers have:

  • Averaged 483 total yards
  • 200 rushing yards
  • 5.5 yards per rush
  • 284 passing yards
  • Completed 67 percent of their passes
  • Averaged 35 points.

In games not against the Packers over that same period, the 49ers have:

  • Averaged 372 total yards
  • 155 rushing yards
  • 4.6 yards per rush
  • 213 passing yards
  • Completed 63 percent of their passes
  • Averaged 25 points.

Yup. The 49ers own the Packers.

The 49ers have beat the Packers with Alex Smith — a game-managing pocket passer — and Colin Kaepernick, a mobile up-and-comer with a cannon for an arm and the ability to run the read-option.

Jim Harbaugh consistently outschemes Mike McCarthy and Dom Capers — coming up with unique formations, unscouted looks and clutch playcalls in key parts of the game that make the Packers look completely befuddled.

Name one position group where the Packers have consistently outplayed the 49ers in the three games? Outside linebacker because of Clay Matthews…maybe? That’s about it.

You’d think the Packers would easily outperform the 49ers at quarterback and wide receiver, but Kaepernick and Smith have matched Rodgers blow for blow and Anquan Boldin single-handedly kept pace with the Packers wideouts on Sunday.

Yes, the Packers have been in all three games, but it’s tough to get blown out when Rodgers is your quarterback. As long as No. 12 is back there, the Packers will be in it, even if they’re getting dominated in every facet of the game like they do against the 49ers. I suppose that’s one thing to feel good about.

A lot of people are saying that the Packers and 49ers could meet again in January. God, I hope not. Give me the Giants, Seachickens, Falcons, Vikings, the ’86 Bears, ’72 Dolphins, or whoever. I’m done watching that machine from the West Coast whip the Packers in almost every facet of the game.

I don’t mean to sound so negative. Really, I think the Packers will once again be great this season and in the mix to win it all. That hasn’t changed after Sunday. I just don’t want to deal with the 49ers again. At all.

Deep down, I want to beat my chest and yell, “Bring on the 49ers one more time in January!” But my brain tells me that that wouldn’t be a good idea.

Instead, I’ll cross my fingers that someone else beats the 49ers before the Packers have to deal with them again. Or that Harbaugh spontaneously combusts.

62 Comments On “Packers Best Chance of Getting Past the 49ers in January? Hope Another Team Beats Them”

  1. Capers inability to modify during the game is atrocious. It didn’t help that McMillon chose to play his worst game ever. Horrible angles, missed tackles, out of position in coverage. Really need Burnett back. — agree wholeheartedly that MM gets out coached too often. — nice effort against the run but it means jack squat if they go off for 400 yards through the air. Something to build on I guess. Disappointed we couldn’t come away with a win when it was actually possible. Offense couldn’t sustain enough drives in a row. GoPack!

    • Blame Capers all you want, but the offense sure placced a lot of pressure on the defense by coughing up the ball twice… The Packers could have easily won that game without the turnovers.

      • Chad,
        The offense put up 28 pts. Against a tough defense. You are welcome to play devils advocate with me but you’re missing the obvious if you gloss over the defensive failures. I admit, I neglected to call out Ross and the poor special teams play as well. Poor field,position didn’t help. However, giving up almost 500 yards is totally unacceptable, regardless of turnovers. GoPack!

  2. I’ve been saying the same thing. The 49ers are the team in the packers way and the Packers just can’t do anything about it. Im glad the Pack had a lead this game with 8min left. But, the D was terrible, especially when it counted in the end. I don’t like capers anymore. When you see a player eating up your D, why not make adjustments, like asign a player to directly cover him everywhere he goes. Line up over him at the line and bump him and stick to him like glue. But capers thought it was better to have bolden run through his weak ass zone.

  3. Its 4:30 Pacific time and I still cant sleep because of this game. Capers sucks, our DBs sucked, except for a couple plays there was no pressure on their QB, he had all day to throw. Playing 10 yards off the receivers most of the game? Oline cant run block at all. Stupid penalties. No creativeness with the play calling…being out coached, again. Your right..the niners own this team.

  4. We played base D 85% of the time in this game. Our 3 fat run stuffers offered no pass rush out of base. Our ends were so worried about the QB run that they looked hesitant at times to rush the passer. MM and Capers had all of season to work this out and all they could do is become one dimensional to the other extreme. Over 400 yards passing and a 130 passer rating instead of being ran over.

  5. If Hayward and Burnett were fully fit I don’t think we would have seen Boldin have a 200+ yard game against us.

    Overall we gave them a better shot and a more competitive game than we had in the previous two meetings. Plus we committed the two turnovers, without them perhaps the game would have been even closer or swung the Packers way.

    I think there are a lot of encouraging signs but still plenty to work on. If we continue to get torched by the pass during the season with Hayward and Burnett back we have serious problems.

    • There aren’t many teams out there that the Packers are going to scheme against, defensively, the same way they did San Fran. We might see another this week against Washington with RGIII, but they aren’t the defensive machine the Niners are. I think we’ll see another game in the 30s this week against the Redskins.

    • Yay, someone who understands football. Did no one else see that the vast majority of the problem was miscommunication on the back end?

      You lose your lead communicator in the secondary and you start to see Sam Shields and Tramon Williams pass off receivers to safeties that aren’t there. You see some guys playing man, others playing zone. You see Anquan Boldin look like Calvin Johnson because Colin K is playing pitch and catch with the guy in a 25 yard hole in our “zone”.

    • They are not and we do have a problem. That is why you create what is called depth. The packers have had secondary problems for the last 3 years. The league has made the rules to favor the passers and receivers. You have to have a crew of Fast, Tall, and agile defenders that can out run, out think, and anticipate the pass and route. That comes from Management making a commitment, Coaches that can change with the times and players that have those abilities. The packer are lacking in all aspects. The management thinks that because the have Rodgers they can outscore anyone. As you can see that is not happening. If I were a opponent I would never run the ball. I would pass on every down, its an automatic gain.

  6. Yeah, Adam, it’s disheartening when something like this happens – especially when it happens at the hands of the same team over and over. I don’t think its time to despair though. We may have played a sloppy game and generally looked like the inferior team Sunday, but we’d have won the game if we could simply have covered Anquan Boldin. No doubt in my mind.

    Hard losses like this will make us a better team by the end of the season. I hope we see these guys again in January. If we can’t beat them then, then we don’t deserve a championship.

  7. In order to be the best, you have to beat the best. We’ll have a good discussion coming for everyone during this week’s live show on Tuesday! Check it out at PackersTalk.com!

  8. What I saw was a game we nearly won without two defensive starters that should be on the field soon. I for one, am optimistic. This was a great game.

  9. It was obvious that given Kaepernick’s running in the playoff game, the game plan was much like when we played AP for the third time last season…..do not allow vertical gaps for them to run between. The lack of pass rush was somewhat by design to keep Kaepernick from running. However once it became obvious that playing zone pass defense would lead to him picking us apart, I would have liked to see some adjustments. Three man rush, play man-toman, with a “spy” on Kaepernick; blitz every now & then, etc.
    I agree with the above post, Capers is often reluctant to adjust game plans, in-game. I would have thought that when he learned that we would be without 2 DB’s he would have been ready to mix in some of the formentioned schemes?

    • Regardless of scheme, guys like McMillian, Hyde, and jones need to make the plays to stop Boldin. Yesterday they did not.

      The good news is that those players will get better, and those positions will improve when Hayward and Burnett come back. Likewise, the O-line will improve.

      This is not the time for despair.

  10. Didn’t see the game but I heard the last quarter on the radio. When Rodgers went 3 and out with 6 minutes left, my heart sank. You have your strength on the field and they can’t move the ball – arrrgh.

    The score would indicate that we when toe to toe with a good 49ers squad. Was this not the case? Did MM and Capers get out-coached, again?

    • Our #3 safety and #4 Corner playing as the nickel back got outplayed.

      Our rookie RB made a rookie mistake (fumble) that led to a TD — people are forgetting that the margin of victory was less than the points the Niners scored on turnovers.

      • Completely agree here. SF will put up 30+ on a lot of folks without the benefit of turnovers. I just hate it when fans start screaming about the coaching instead of just realizing that it’s mostly on the players.

        Had Capers gone to more man, it would have been a replay of January. SF would have run everyone deep and left the middle wide open for CK to run free. It was a kind of pick your poison, and in my opinion they did a much better job in the game yesterday.

        Look they lost to last years Conference winner in their house by less than 1 score. There are no moral victories to be sure, but I’m not ready to throw the baby out with the bath water.

  11. Not gloomy or doomy about this. It’s tough to expect the offense to go from 0 to 70 in 5 seconds, after that preseason. Tough to rely on so many rookies making their first starts. This was a much closer game than last year’s playoff game, and those guys were gifted 4 points, playing at home. Question is who will be the better team come this December, and despite the 49ers missing a couple of receivers, I think the Packers might have the higher upside on development and roster returns.

  12. with what we were missing in the game players wise and being a young team i thought we did a good job playing a team full of veterans in san fran. just think of it this way the niners have peaked we are just now starting out and they only got us by 7 just think how much better we are gonna get. i do agree about dom though he needs to go

  13. I can’t say how much I disagree with this article. Yes the 49ers won a different way.

    But they got 11 points gift wrapped for them. And 1/2 our starting secondary was out. That won’t happen again.

    When we get them again, we’ll beat them. Not afraid.

    • When you outplay a team as much as the 49ers have ouplayed the Packers over the last three games, you tend to earn those “giftwrapped” points.

      • The 49ers outplayed GB twice last year. Not yesterday. That was a close game. If any of the freak things that happened to GB’s way yesterday, GB very well could have won.

        • It would also help if the refs called the blatant holds on Kaep’s third down scramble in the 2nd half.

          • When you hit as hard as SF does and play fundamentally sound, mistake-free football, you create your own “breaks” (if you consider interceptions and fumbles a break or a freak play for some reason).

  14. I’m hopeful about our secondary when we get Burnett and Hayward back. I’m really worried about special teams. WTF is Ross doing back there?

  15. I agree with this article completely. I might add that our run game looked just like the past 3 yrs, putrid. AP couldnt get 75 yrds. with our O-line. Also, 49ers OWNED 3rd down.

    • How many yards did AP get with HIS OL yesterday against the Lions? 90-ish…and 78 on the first touch?

      If you’re going to pass judgment on the Packer running game based on this game against one of the top defensive fronts over the last 3-4 years, I’m not surprised your unhappy.

      I think you’ll be singing a different tune after the Redskins next week.

  16. We cannot make any mistakes and that includes Coaches. McCarthy says he would take the penalty if he had it again. He would be wrong on both accounts. Capers runs the same crap on third down time and time again. Rather than change the calls, I really would like to change D coordinators. With that, we still played well enough to give ourselves a chance.

  17. If we are going to fire any coaches, lets look at our offensive line. Year after year our line sucks. Rodgers gets sacked on the last play. We can’t run the ball. Every team has injuries. But yet Campen keeps his job. Really I don’t get it. Ahman Green couldn’t run behind that line. 3 penalties on Sitton, really! Our defense played good enough to win. Finley has to hang onto the ball. That play right there is a killer. MM giving them another play for what a 5 yard penalty? There were mistakes made, the talent is there, Coaches need to coach. I would play them again.

    • I have been a critic of Campens for years. Why is he still here? I just don’t get it.

    • I have complained about Campen for years but I gotta admit that he is playing the cards dealt to him. The 49er O-line is loaded with high draft picks. We are playing a 4th round rookie at LT and an undrafted rookie (almost) at RT and an undrafted center. I am not sure that Campen shouldn’t be given a raise. Credit where credit is due

  18. “To be the man… you gotta beat the man”.

    WOOOOOOOO!

  19. If MM would whine and spit on the referees like Harbough does maybe we win that game…

  20. The Packers may have been too concerned with keeping Kaepernick in the pocket and that resulted in little pass rush. They need to find the right mix of pressure and contain and needed to go after him a little more. The coverage was terrible, have to wonder what Peyton or Brady could do to the Pack if Kaepernick can put up 400.

  21. To me, the most glaring difference between the two teams is the offensive line. The Packers need to commit to stopping the run, because if the don’t, an undrafted rookie free agent would look good behind SF’s line.

    The Packer offensive line in contrast is abysmal. EDS consistently whiffs. They seem to be pushed back consistently on running play. Frustrating..

    • The reason SF plays the way they do and teams have to scheme defensively the way they do is BECAUSE they have that OL.

      All told, the Packers only gave up 2 sacks to an aggressive SF defense. Sure, SF pressured ARod, but the Packers handled them well. They seemed to go away from the designed rollouts in the second half a little, which was disappointing to me.

    • EDS has to go, watch the middle of the line, you won’t see EDS he five yard up field looking around!

  22. Without seeing the game, I can’t quite figure out the 2:1 difference in time of possession. That stat would typically indicate total control of the game. Were the Pack lucky to even be in this game?

  23. I had not seen any of the Packers’ pre-season games, so I didn’t know what to expect. Soooooooooo, now I have a better picture. All in all, they played the 9’ers a little better than I thought they would, and they could have won it without the turnovers, but their commitment to letting at least one 49er run free for the entire game without making a single adjustment is beyond me.
    What I saw was the same thing we saw in 2011, no pass defense!
    TT’s refusal to draft a decent safety spoke volumes yesterday. We haven’t had decent safety play since Nick Collins went down. Like many of you I think we were out-coached and I think it’s time to fire Capers and any or all coaches aligned with the D-Backs. It appeared that the defensive game plan was to let Boldin run wild, and they did.
    As of right now I haven’t seen or read anything by or about McPuffy this morning, but if it’s still about “Correctable Fundamentals” then maybe it’s time for him to go too!

  24. What is everyone so down about? Dom Capers is still one of the best in the business. He can scheme better than just about anyone. Ultimately it is up to the players. This game came down to a fumble that gave the 49R’s “7”, and an incorrect 3rd down call by the referees. Anquan Boldin is a beast but he pushed off on that 4th down. So instead of the Packers getting the ball back with time the 49R’s score again. That happens. It is one game, and the Packers with a very young team typically start out slow. This Packers team will be a very different juggernaut at the end of the year barring injuries. Frankly Mike McCarthy, Dom Capers, and Ted Thompson were geniuses 3 years ago when they won a Super Bowl with a makeshift team.

  25. Why do people seem to assume that firing a coach will automatically make things better?

    • Because doing the same thing over and over usually results in the same result. A fresh hungry coach who brings in new staff may have a different approach and different is what may help.

  26. This reminds me of the 1990s Packers who couldn’t beat the Cowboys and lost to them several times in Dallas, including the playoffs, when I lived there. It was discouraging to say the least.

    There seems to be a team who can beat the Packers consistently and now it’s the 49ers. Their time will come.

    History does tend to repeat itself.

  27. You can blame anyone you want but the packer defense just does not have the talent to get it done. The secondary defense is high school level at best. The offensive line stinks. Sittin and Evan D smith should not even be in the league. The big boys are week and can’t push the offensive line back and were 3 to 5 yards in there backfield on every play. You have to stop listening to MM press conferences, they only ask him questions that are easy to answer with excuses. Get over it the packers are going to be 8 and 8 that is what their talent shows.

  28. Where was Davon House? He has got to be better than Bush and may have saved at least one San Francisco touchdown. What happened to Nick Perry as far as injury towards the end of the game? Could he have helped stop the last field goal? We would have been in position to tie. I wish I had sent an E-mail to Capers to pull out Boldin’s rookie year against the Pack where he pretty much did the same as yesterday.

  29. IMO there were four plays that turned the game. Ross’ two poor decisions to run the ball out of the end zone, Lacy’s fumble, and Finley’s shuffle to the DB interception. I hope the GB makes the playoffs and faces the 49ers. It would be terrible to win the SB and have the “experts” say, “Well, they didn’t have to face SF.”

  30. Good comments from everyone, as usual. Keep in mind — and I made this clear in the post — I’m not in “despair” about the Packers or think the season is ruined. They’re a helluva team and will be in the Super Bowl mix as usual.

    All I’m saying is that I’d rather not play the 49ers again because they kick our ass pretty much every time.

  31. Lets call this the ‘IF’ game….

    ‘IF’ Lacy didn’t fumble
    ‘IF’ Ross didn’t take those kicks out
    ‘IF’ CM3 didn’t perform the cheap hit
    ‘IF’ MM didn’t accept the penalty
    ‘IF’ Finley didn’t hand an INT over
    ‘IF’ McMillen and Manning didn’t suck
    ‘If’ Rodgers was able to get the Hail Mary off
    ‘If’ All our #1’s played like #1’s
    ‘IF’ Sitton had no penaltys
    ‘IF’ We didn’t have 6(?) three and outs
    ‘IF’ we were able to run w/o holding
    ‘IF’ we called more screens

    Football isn’t a game played on an ‘etch-a-sketch’….we did these things.

    • Yup. And a lot of those “IF” mistakes were forced by the 49ers. When you hit hard, tackle well, and protect the football, you’ll force the other guys to make those types of “IF” errors.

      The Packers are 0-1. Zero wins, 1 loss. They are not 0-1-1. Zero wins, zero losses, 1 we would’ve won “IF” only…

  32. People can say what they want about not having Burnet and Hayward. ..the niners balanced that out by not having Crabtree and Manningham. Ya, Crabtree. .thats the guy we couldn’t stop last year in the playoffs when we had all our DBs. Bottom line. ..our DBs look completly confused in Zone…they basically have since Capers took over (except 2010). I am not a Dom Capers fan anymore. His scheme maybe fine and its players that make plays, BUT, if the personnel you are working with are incapable of running your scheme, then run a scheme your players work best with.no half time adjustments once again for Dom Capers!

  33. I am confident that if this team can stay healthy and give the effort they gave yesterday in every game, the Packers will win a lot of games this year. Yes, we could have won yesterday, but we were undone by poor field position for most of the game, questionable special teams play, a rookie fumble, and a stupid play by CM3. We only had the ball for 21 minutes. Imagine if the TOP were evenly split. Part of this is the result of little to no hitting allowed during practices. In any case MM will get the little things corrected and move on. Stay healthy and Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since ’61.

  34. the difference between the 49ers and Packers is simple… they spent a 6th round draft pick to fix a hole on their team(receiver), and we did not (safety). I put this loss on Thompson, for not getting us the players we need. (I also blame injuries).

  35. I just looked it up. The 49ers put up over 400 yards in the Super Bowl against a tough Raven defense and almost 400 in Atlanta in the NFC title game. Pre Kaepernick, the Packers kept the 49ers well under 400 yards. (Last years opener). I think that the Packers will get this figured out and I have hope, with reason for a better result the next time they meet.

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