PAINFUL MEMORY: The 49ers haven’t forgotten Lawrence Tynes’ kick in the NFC Championship Game to send the Giants to the Super Bowl. Quarterback Alex Smith says the 49ers have “unfinished business.” (
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Here’s betting Antrel Rolle is wrong.
As the hum created by a victory over the winless Browns quickly was drowned out by the immediate buzz generated for the upcoming game in San Francisco, Rolle was asked if he believed this is a date the 49ers have circled on their calendars.
“I don’t think so,’’ Rolle said. “I think they attack it the same way we’re attacking it. We play and we focus on the team that we have here and this is the matchup this week.’’
Perhaps the 49ers did not take the time for the physical action of picking up a marker and encircling Oct. 14 on the schedule but you know what goes down that afternoon at Candlestick Park is going to resonate deeply and passionately with Jim Harbaugh’s team. It was the Niners who were 13-3 last season, who had one home game standing in the way of a well-deserved trip to Super Bowl XLVI, who bludgeoned Eli Manning for more than four quarters. It was the 49ers who, in the weeks and months after the 20-17 overtime loss in the NFC Championship Game, decided they deserved to win, that the turnovers on special teams down the stretch were fluky and not indicative of how the brutally-rugged game was played and which team was supposed to move on.
This week, quarterback Alex Smith said the 49ers have “unfinished business’’ to attend to this weekend and Kyle Williams — the culprit who muffed the two punts — added, “We look at it as they have something that we should’ve had.’’
This is going to be more than a rematch between two NFC teams thinking they can get through the conference again. The Giants are 3-2 and haven’t yet found their way on defense. The 49ers are one of four NFC teams at 4-1, but in reality they stand alone, even atop the 5-0 Falcons, when it comes to their look and feel as a powerhouse team.
It seems as if everything that went wrong for the 49ers in the NFC title game was systematically addressed, as if Harbaugh had a checklist. The Niners were the more punishing team on that rainy Jan. 22 in the Bay Area, but they were not sufficiently offensively equipped. Smith was effective (two touchdown passes, no interceptions) but not efficient, completing less than half his passes and, incredibly, only one (for three yards) to a starting receiver.
To heck with that, Harbaugh must have said. The 49ers signed two new receivers, Randy Moss and Mario Manningham (who scored a touchdown for the Giants in that NFC title game) and suddenly Smith has a far more diversified attack to go along with the pounding ground game that doesn’t even need Brandon Jacobs (slowed by a knee injury and has yet to play). Moss starts and hasn’t been a huge factor (nine catches, 99 yards, 1 TD) but his reputation is enough to force defenses to look his way. Manningham (19 catches, 186 yards, 1 TD) gives Smith, as the Giants well-know, a physically-gifted No. 3 option.
Plus, Harbaugh will make sure the scent of payback is heavy in the air on Sunday.
“This isn’t the NFC Championship Game, though,’’ Giants guard Kevin Boothe said. “That was last year. This is a new year, we’re all chasing one thing.’’
The 49ers are ahead of the Giants in the chase — if it matters in early-to-mid October who is leading the Super Bowl contender pack. Thrashing the Jets and Bills by a combined 79-3 score inflated the value of Niners stock, providing the perfect lead-in to a game that has the feel of a too-much, too-soon challenge for the Giants, who simply haven’t played defense at a championship level. Tom Coughlin’s Giants have a strong track record of big-time road efforts, though, especially when they’re forced to run the no-they-can’t gauntlet. If they’re able to pull it off again this weekend, it will indeed be a bridge built from last year to this one.
Can Canty be Giants’ missing ingredient?
In seven NFL seasons and 104 regular-season games, Chris Canty has only 16 sacks and his best performance was last year with a career-high four. It’s not his game, and so why would anyone believe that his impending return will help ignite a spark-less pass rush?
“I feel like what I bring to the table for our defensive line group, I feel my skill-set will bode well not only for myself but also for the rest of the guys,’’ Canty explained. “It’s kind of like when you have all your pieces in place. Hopefully when I come back we’ll kind of get things to the way they used to be around here.’’
The way things used to be for the Giants was sheer dominance, with Jason Pierre-Paul, Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora creating constant matchup nightmares resulting in a meeting at the opposing quarterback. Not having Canty as the team’s top defensive tackle, using his 6-foot-7 frame and imposing wingspan to bat down passes and clog passing lanes, doesn’t excuse the dearth of pressure by the much-hyped defensive ends. It does explain, somewhat, how offensive lines, tight ends and running backs are able to devote more manpower to the ends.
Maybe JPP, Tuck and Osi — who are feeling the heat and the sting of growing criticism — get on track against the 49ers, who have allowed 12 sacks of Alex Smith. Canty won’t be there but he will come off the physically unable to perform list next week and says his surgically-repaired knee is feeling great. Soon enough, he will take his place alongside steady Linval Joseph and the line will be intact.
* Ahmad Bradshaw on ESPN radio (98.7 FM) yesterday said Hakeem Nicks “gave me a hint’’ he would be able to play on Sunday after missing the past three games with knee and foot issues. “I think he’ll be there this week,’’ Bradshaw said of the wide receiver.