Packers or Giants? The historical perspective.

Looking at how the Niners have done historically against each team, doesnt have much to do with how they'd do this time but it's still interesting in terms of rivalries. So this post shows you the playoff history of each fixture. It comes up a bit late since the Giants-Packers-Game is just about to start but maybe it's still useful for building up on it afterwards, when we know who the winner is. Jump...

In playoff games the overall record against the Giants is 4 - 3 in favor of the Niners; the record against the Packers is 1 - 3 to their advantage.

The only win against the Pack happened in the 1998 Wildcard game, by the score 30-27 (feat. Terrell Owens and the Catch II). This came after the Packers had eliminated us the two previous years, in the 1997 NFC Championship Game and in 1996 in the divisional round. Those 3 years in the late 90ies mark the time of the biggest rivalry between the 49ers and the cheesehead-army.Against the Giants the playoff rivalry is mostly a thing of the 80ies with four meetings having taken place in the timespan from 1981 to 1986. The results were evenly split: The Niners won twice (1981/1984) and so did the Giants (1985/1986). In each of their wins the Giants kept the Niners to scoring only a Field Goal and the game in 1986 was a huge blowout win by the score of 49-3. All 4 games were won by the home team.

At the Conference Level the Niners have met each team once with both games beeing ugly losses. The loss against the Giants in the 1990 Championship game is one of the worst in Niners history and one of the greatest in Giants history. It ended on a Roger Craig fumble with 2:36 left and also ended Joe Montana's career with the 49ers due to the infamous blindside-hit by Leonard Marshall. Furthermore it ended our attempt to become the first team to win three straight Super Bowls. The only meeting with the Packers at the Conference Level in 1997 saw Brett Favre triumph over Steve Young by the score of 23-10. Luckily for the Packers Jerry Rice was out with injury.

The latest playoff games between us and them happened about a decade ago, both games were at the WildCard level. In 2001 the Niners were beat 25-15 by Green Bay. In 2002 the Niners overcame the Giants in a spectacular game by the score of 39-38, but lost to the Bucs in the next round. As everybody knows, this was the last playoff appearance of the Niners prior to now.

All playoff games vs. NY / GB in chronological order:

vs. Green Bay:

2001 WildCard (away) 15-25 L
1998 WildCard (home) 30-27 W
1997 ConfChamp (home) 10-23 L
1996 Division (away) 14-35 L

vs. New York:

2002 WildCard (home) 39-38 W
1993 Division (home) 44-3 W
1990 ConfChamp (home) 13-15 L
1986 Division (away) 3-49 L
1985 WildCard (away) 3-17 L
1984 Division (home) 21-10 W
1981 Division (home) 38-24 W