They came so close — so agonizingly close — a year ago that it was difficult for the 49ers to come to grips with the reality they were staying home and the Giants were moving on. Coming up one game short of the Super Bowl, losing an NFC Championship Game in overtime, has hardened the 49ers to make sure they aren’t denied again.
The disappointment of last year’s 20-17 loss to the Giants at rainy and windy Candlestick Park provided a lesson the 49ers expect will carry them through another NFC title game — Sunday’s matchup with the Falcons inside the Georgia Dome.
“It’s just the experience, just knowing that this opportunity is rare, it doesn’t come around often,’’ Pro Bowl linebacker Patrick Willis said. “Although we were here last year, the prior four years before that we were at home those other times, we didn’t make the playoffs. So just to have this opportunity again and to be here, it’s one of those things we don’t take for granted. We know that window for chances like this is slim and we have to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Through that window, the 49ers can see all the way to New Orleans, site of Super Bowl XLVII. A trip to Indianapolis last year was denied on Jan. 22, 2012, when a Kyle Williams fumble in overtime set up the winning points for the Giants on Lawrence Tynes’ 31-yard field goal. Immediately afterward and in the months that followed, it was difficult for the Niners to come to grips with the defeat, with safety Donte Whitner saying the game was “ours to lose, we let it slip through our fingers.’’ Prior to this season’s rematch with the Giants, Williams said, “We look at it as if they have something we should have had.’’
The Niners exacted no revenge on Oct. 14, when the Giants returned to the scene of their San Francisco heist and left with a thoroughly dominating 26-3 victory. It was one of the few stumbles for the 49ers. They went 11-4-1, won the NFC West once again and let first-year starting quarterback Colin Kaepernick loose on the Packers in last week’s NFC Divisional playoff game, winning 45-31. The 49ers are a four-point favorite this weekend despite playing on the road against the No. 1 seed in the conference.
This was all new to the 49ers the first time around, but a repeat appearance in the NFC title game is where they expected to be.
“Yeah, I think, definitely. I think everybody feels it,’’ defensive end Justin Smith said. “The majority of the guys that are in that locker room were here last year and felt the disappointment. We were so excited [in last year’s playoffs] after winning the Saints game. I didn’t feel the same, ‘Oh we did it,’ this and that after the Packers game and we beat a heck of a team in the Packers. I feel like the whole team kind of got a sense of there’s more to this thing then just getting to this game.
“As a whole team top to bottom, coaching staff, we’re better prepared to handle it and know what’s in front of us.”
“This year, it feels like we have a completely different level of confidence,” linebacker Larry Grant said. “We know what we’re capable of, and we’re acting on it this year. Last year, it was still new. We went from a below .500 team to the best in the NFC last year or damn near the best year in the NFC. This year we understand things a little bit more.”
That understanding means the 49ers realize coming up short here hurts very badly.
“It’s not good enough just to make the playoffs,’’ Willis said. “It’s not good enough just to make it to the NFC Championship. We want to win it all. That’s what we’ll be remembered by the most, is being able to go to that Super Bowl and win it. But it starts this Sunday, winning this game to have the opportunity to go there. Just winning, winning it all.”