INGLEWOOD, CALIFORNIA – JANUARY 09: Jauan Jennings #15 of the San Francisco 49ers runs with the ball as Donte’ Deayon #21 of the Los Angeles Rams defends throughout the extra time interval within the recreation at SoFi Stadium on January 09, 2022 in Inglewood, California. (Picture by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Pictures)
The trendy NFL is introduced, precisely, as a recreation of unimaginable precision and progressive ways.
However always remember that it’s additionally a recreation of madmen — individuals who willingly run into one another at a full dash.
And typically, the victor is the group that proves to be larger, stronger, and crazier when the clock expires.
That’s actually been the case within the 49ers’ six straight wins over the Los Angeles Rams. And it’s more likely to be the case once more on Sunday in LA, when the Niners go for a seventh straight win and a second journey to the Tremendous Bowl in three seasons.
The Niners smacked across the Rams of their first matchup this season as a result of San Francisco established a bodily tone early. The Rams — constructed for that fashionable, spread-it-out recreation on either side of the ball — couldn’t deal with it.
The margin was a lot nearer in Week 18, when the 49ers had their season on the road, however San Francisco’s physicality as soon as once more gained out on the finish.
The Rams know what the Niners are all about. They made key changes between these two contests, closing that hole between the 2 groups.
However can they do sufficient to shut the hole earlier than a 3rd showdown — crucial 49ers-Rams recreation since 1990?
The solutions shall be discovered within the trenches. They’ll be discovered within the additional yards discovered on the finish of a play. They’ll be present in the important thing moments of the sport — the ends of halves, third downs, and the purple zone.
And it’s there that the 49ers like their possibilities. They've constructed up super callouses over the previous couple of months. San Francisco is a group that has been combating for its proverbial life since Week 10, when their 3-5 document put their season on the point of collapse.
However they beat the Rams that Monday evening in Week 10 as a result of they noticed no different selection and performed in a model of soccer acceptable for the event. It was an actual “break glass in case of emergency” second.
Since then, they've had some downs, however extra ups. Residing on the sting for therefore lengthy has constructed a tolerance to emphasize. These Niners have seen all of it and achieved most of it. They’re a squad that's battle-tested — each bodily and mentally robust.
There are some ways that matter, in fact.
It begins for San Francisco by getting the ball in Deebo Samuel’s fingers as typically as doable.
Samuel is the poster baby for the NFL’s new sort of talent participant. He can go anyplace, do something, and that opens up limitless prospects for the 49ers’ offense.
Sure, he’s a imply, imply dude on the sector — there’s a motive he’s not known as Tyshun — however he’s additionally somebody who can permit the old-school 49ers to play the fashionable recreation, “basketball on grass.”
And identical to in basketball, you give the ball to the very best participant time and again and once more and let him work.
It was Samuel whom the Niners broke the glass for in Week 10. They moved him backwards and forwards between extensive receiver and working again, placing the Rams in persistently disadvantageous defensive positions. Whether or not it was via a fast cross or a pitch run, Samuel punished both larger gamers not quick sufficient to maintain up with him, or lighter gamers not able to deal with him.
Samuel touched the ball 10 instances in that Week 10 recreation. He averaged 13 yards per contact — a stupefying quantity.
The entire world opened up for the Niners on offense. The Niners discovered their defensive id as properly, shifting again to the ways that helped take them to the 2019 Tremendous Bowl. Techniques that require a dominant line of defense to win time and again and once more within the trenches.
A couple of tweaks, an undesired quarterback change, one other QB change, and some shut calls later, the Niners sit on the precipice of the Tremendous Bowl as soon as once more. They’re plucky upstarts who're enjoying with home cash, led by a lame-duck however charismatic quarterback and an excellent offensive play caller and chief of males.
This group leads with the pinnacle — diving proper into the fray — a helpful, if harmful trait, that fits them properly towards the Rams, who've taken after their metropolis and supply extra glitz and glamour than toughness and character.
Maybe that unimaginable Los Angeles expertise takes over within the playoffs. Maybe showtime is what the NFL desires for its marquee recreation.
However the Niners — a lot proficient in their very own proper — have confirmed that regardless of numerous rule adjustments and a transparent shift in the direction of velocity and athleticism, toughness, dimension, and energy are nonetheless important to profitable within the NFL.
And when you think about that, this unimaginable and inconceivable 49ers run makes a complete lot of sense.