Green Bay Packers: 5 Reasons they can beat 49ers in NFC Championship
By Joe Kipp
The Green Bay Packers have a tall task ahead this coming Sunday. Here are five reasons they can defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship game.
The Green Bay Packers are one of four NFL teams remaining that can win a Super Bowl. Let that sink in for a moment. Just one season after finishing 6-9-1, the Packers are 14-3 with a chance of clinching a berth to Super Bowl LIV under first-year head coach Matt LaFleur. The only thing standing in their way is the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.
The Packers travel to Santa Clara to take on the Niners this Sunday at 6:40 p.m. ET. In their previous matchup in Week 12, Green Bay fell short by a final score of 37-8, but there’s a number of factors that went into the embarrassing loss. The NFC Championship should provide a much more even matchup this time around, especially since it’s hard to beat a team twice.
Currently, the Packers are 7.5-point underdogs, courtesy of the Action Network. This is only the fourth time in Aaron Rodgers’ career (191 starts) in which the Packers are underdogs of a touchdown or more, according to ESPN. Green Bay lost the previous three times, albeit all by one score.
The Packers undoubtedly have a tall task ahead of them, but an upset in Santa Clara isn’t impossible. Just look at how the Atlanta Falcons upset San Fran in Week 15 as 10.5-point underdogs. Or how the Tennessee Titans just defeated the Baltimore Ravens in the AFC Divisional Round this past weekend as 10-point underdogs.
The moral of the story: anything is possible on any given Sunday. The Packers may have gotten blown out in their first meeting with the Niners, but that doesn’t hold any significance for this weekend. Here are five reasons the Packers can upset the 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.