49ers v Packers: 3 reasons the 49ers won the NFC Championship game

No. 3: Getting Off To A Hot Start

A lot of the talk coming into the NFC Championship Game was swirling around the idea that this matchup wouldn’t resemble the Week 12 meeting between the two teams in any way, shape, or form.

The Packers had learned from their mistakes of that contest. They were on a winning streak, not having lost a game since that Sunday night in Santa Clara.

They had improved as a football team.

And yet, in spite of all the talk, the game more or less started exactly the same way as that late November matchup, including one very important detail: The 49ers jumped out to an early lead that they would never relinquish.

In the first game, the 49ers led the Packers 23-0 at halftime. This past Sunday, the lead was 27-0.

On November 24, only one of the Packers’ first half drives entered San Francisco territory, ending in a turnover on downs at the 49ers’ 28-yard line. On January 19, it was the same story, with this one drive ending with a fumbled snap on the 49ers’ 25-yard line.

When the 49ers won in Week 12, the Packers managed just 40 yards of offense in the first half. With the right to go to the Super Bowl on the line, the Packers managed just 83 yards of offense in the first half.

And that hot start, which looked a lot like the hot start the Niners got off to nine weeks ago, created enough separation for the 49ers to hold off a second half surge by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers offense.

More significantly, it gave 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan the go-ahead to call zero pass plays for the entirety of the third quarter.

The hot start was fueled in conjuncture with the other two major reasons the Niners won the ballgame, starting with a great showing by the defense.