Saturday’s final wild card game is going on right now and two more games are left to go on Sunday. It’s hard to be a fan of a team not in the playoffs, but I do have something to provoke some better feelings. Today marks the five-year anniversary of when the 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers in Lambeau Field to advance to the divisional round.
Why is this so important? Well for many 49ers fans, the Packers were the source of childhood nightmares. Several times in the 90s the 49ers would face the packers in the playoffs and get sent home. Be it because of getting out coached or awful officiating. The 49ers got some vengeance with the Catch 2, but it still didn’t erase loss after loss to the Packers.
To start the 2012-2013 season, the 49ers opened things up by traveling to Green Bay and facing the Packers. With help from the replacement refs, the 49ers won in convincing fashion. The big stories were how quarterback Alex Smith outplayed Aaron Rodgers in the contest and that the 49ers were even better after their run to the NFC Championship game the previous year. As the season went on, the 49ers swapped Smith for Colin Kaepernick and the team turned to a more powerful offense as a result. The 49ers met the Packers a second time that year in the divisional round. What happened was an absolute embarrassment to the Packers defense where the 49ers put 579 yards of total offense and this gem. It was a nice reversal of roles. To start the 2013 season, the 49ers hosted the Packers again in Week 1 where the Packers proceeded to give the 49ers their absolute best shot—and lose again, thanks largely in part to recently acquired wide receiver Anquan Boldin.
For the the playoffs that same year, on January 5th, 2014, the Packers again would face the 49ers. This time in the wild card. The 49ers would be going back to Lambeau in the frigid tundra to do battle for a fourth time. Once again, the Packers would lose.
So twice in the regular season and two playoff knockouts. If you were a fan of the 49ers in the 90s, there was no way you weren’t loving this. It wasn’t a win, it wasn’t a playoff win, it was a playoff win against the Packers in Green Bay. Multiple times. Kaepernick was considered Green Bay’s kryptonite at that point. Well, until Jim Harbaugh left and Jim Tomsula took over, where the 49ers would get thumped at home when they met again. The second playoff win in Green Bay may have been the best of the four because it was another one of Green Bay’s concentrated shots (with the officials allowing Rodgers’ line to hold like crazy), at Green Bay, in the frigid cold (it was like four degrees there) and the Packers still couldn’t beat the 49ers.
Given that we watched all these wild card games and this is the five-year anniversary of one of my favorite playoff wins, I thought it was the best way to close out the evening.
Stay faithful my friends.
(The DMCA Biscuits may have not allowed you to view the video above. Go here to watch highlights)