Before they can earn a trip into a third straight NFC Championship Game, the 49ers have to first get past Jordan Love and the Packers.
As the top seed in the NFC, there was no reason to view the 49ers as anything other than the favorite to glide through the playoffs and represent the conference in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
Moving along these trails rarely are cakewalks, though, and there was certainly sentiment that the No. 2 seed Cowboys could make a run.
And there was certainly strong sentiment that the Cowboys, undefeated at home this season, had enough firepower to get past the No. 7 seed Packers in the wild-card round.
As we know by now, that did not happen.
“I didn’t know who was going to win,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “So it didn’t surprise me what happened. Dallas is a good team so just the way it started out was a little surprising. Once you watch the tape and you really get into Green Bay and you really think of their numbers and you really watch their players and how they’re doing it, it doesn’t surprise me at all now.”
Upsets happen, but the way the Packers rolled to leads of 27-0 in the first half and 48-16 early in the fourth quarter of a 48-32 victory on the road at AT&T Stadium was astonishing to see.
Once the Cowboys were unceremoniously bounced from the postseason, the 49ers while sitting back and watching last week’s action strengthened their hold on their team-to-beat status in the NFC.
That respite ends Saturday night, when the 49ers embark on what they expect will be an extended stay in the postseason with an NFC divisional playoff matchup with the Packers at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara.
