GIANTS-49ers in the NFC Championship game was Bloodbath I.
Giants-49ers Sunday will be Bloodbath II.
Just the way the Giants like it.
“It’s going to sound like being in the middle of a thunderstorm,” Chris Canty told The Post. “Pads are going to be poppin’. As soon as you step on the sidelines, you feel it, you know it. Even when you’re warming up, you know it. You feel the energy from the atmosphere, you know what it’s going to be about. It’s just exciting, it’s a great feeling.”
It absolutely kills Canty, who vows to return off the physically unable to perform list next week, that he will be home watching Frank Gore and the 49ers try to run the ball down Big Blue’s throat. Because when you play football, you live for Blood and Gore.
“It’s a bloodbath. … We knew that going out there last year, that’s why I said it,” Canty said. “It held true.”
Jim Harbaugh’s offensive line has fashioned the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack (195.8).
“They compete to see who’s going to be more physical — among each other,” Canty said.
The Giants expect to be rotating inexperienced Markus Kuhn and Marvin Austin alongside Linval Joseph on the interior.
“In this day and age in the NFL, they’re a throwback,” Mathias Kiwanuka said.
Austin, who missed his rookie 2011 season, was drafted in the second round for games and opponents like this.
“It’s definitely going to be nasty,” he said with a mischievous smile.
The Alex Smith 49ers are not built like the Eli Manning Giants. Smith (eight touchdowns, three interceptions, 108.7 quarterback rating) is increasingly efficient, but not elite.
“This is why we play football,” Kuhn said. “These are the big-time games where you have to bring all you got.”
Joseph was drafted in the second round of the 2010 draft for games and opponents like this.
“He’s one of the strongest guys in the league,” Canty said.
What have you seen him do?
“Well you can come in here on Tuesdays and watch him work out,” Canty said, and began chuckling. “It seems he’s got all the weights on the rack on the bench press bar or on the squat bar. He makes it looks easy.”
How about during a game?
“I’m not going to point to a specific play, but I will tell you this, and I’ve told him this several times: When he makes up his mind that he’s going to go straight, he’s going to go through the offensive lineman into the backfield — when he decides he’s going to do that, there is nobody that can stop him,” Canty said.
The 49ers lead the NFL with a 6.1 yard rushing average.
“They present you a lot of different runs, a lot of different blocking schemes, they have a lot of different personnel groups with formations and adjustments,” defensive coordinator Perry Fewell said, “so they are a little bit unique in what they do.”
Fewell said he knows exactly why the Giants are a mediocre 16th against the run.
“Tackling, and then discipline in our gaps,” he said.
Gore (432 yards, four TDs) is seventh in the league in rushing.
“His vision is some of the best in the league the way that he can see things that a lot of running backs might not be able to see,” Austin said.
Fewell remains optimistic that the hits and sacks will come from his struggling pass rushers.
“If we do a better job in the run game, we can help them by letting them do what they do best,” he said. “We can’t allow people to run the football and dictate what they want to do to us. We have to dictate what they can do to us.”
Where there’s a will there’s a way — even if it takes more than 60 minutes, the way the NFC Championship game did.
“I think that game had the edge on the Super Bowl … on the intensity level,” Antrel Rolle said.
We know this much: unlike the Jets, Carlos Rogers won’t be calling the Giants quitters.
“In order to be able to beat them, you’ve got to match and exceed their physical intensity,” Canty said.
Easier said than done, right?
“Well yeah. …. You got to punch them in the mouth. You got to know that they’re going to punch back,” he said. “But ultimately, it’s going to be the man who has the stronger will, the greater desire to win, who’s going to be successful.”
Bloodbath II.