GAMEDAY Niner fans!  And not just any game-day, playoff game-day!  The San Francisco Forty Niners take on the New Orleans Saints today in the 49ers first playoff appearance since 2002.  By now you’ve read hundreds of game previews, poured over tons of analysis and inside opinions.  But to be as prepared for a playoff game as you need to be, you’ve got to do a little extra homework.

And that’s where I come in.  It’s time to go Inside The Numbers, Playoff style!

To the untrained eye the stats tell us a lot of what we already know.  The Saints have an awesome offense and the 49ers have a great defense.  To me, the numbers tell a story of 2 teams that employed a completely different strategy to get to its 13-3 record.  Drew Brees compiled a record setting season passing for 5,476 yards.  Compare that to Alex Smith’s 3,144 and it looks like the 49ers can’t pass.  But that’s not the case at all, sure the Saints totaled over 2,300 yards of passing offense than did the 49ers.  Let’s look at why: First the Saints threw the ball 662 times this year while the 49ers only attempted just 451 passes.  For all those throws, the Saints avg per pass attempt is only 0.2 yards greater than the Niners (11.7 vs 11.5).

I’m diving into these numbers neck deck after the break

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