From the regular season to the playoffs, the games are played week after week. Except for the offseason and wild card byes, there is no time and space to breathe and adjust. Once the season starts, it will rush towards the finish line until the finals. You will never stop until you win the final championship.
Each game and the intervals between each game are the same. Within a week, each team will quickly complete adjustments within a short rest period, and then devote themselves wholeheartedly to the next matchup. It's not an easy thing, but it's the daily routine of the professional league.
However, after entering the playoffs, time seemed to start to speed up. It was also a week's rest, but it seemed as if they had just taken a breath, and the federation finals had officially arrived.
On January 20, two conference finals were played successively: at 3 p.m. Eastern time, the National League finals started first; then at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, the American League finals followed.
Although the two conference finals can be described as strong matchups, in comparison, the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots are both veteran teams in the league, with a more solid and broader fan base; at the same time, top superstars There are more, in terms of publicity stunts and hot spots, etc., it is slightly better.
After careful consideration, league officials decided to schedule the American League finals in a night game.
Therefore, the San Francisco 49ers, the top seed in the National League, are about to take the field in the afternoon - at 3 pm Eastern time, which is 12 noon Western time, this will be a noon showdown. The team will sit at home and face the second seed in the National League. Seed Atlanta Falcons.
After the opening of the regular season this season, the San Francisco 49ers and the Atlanta Falcons were in the spotlight for a while. Their strong winning streak kept going hand in hand, extending from three consecutive wins to nine consecutive wins. In fact, because of the two teams, This team has no chance to compete in the regular season. If the Atlanta Falcons can continue their winning streak, it is possible for two teams to win the season at the same time.
Unfortunately, in the end, it was the Atlanta Falcons who were the first to end their winning streak at the hands of their rivals, the New Orleans Saints.
But there is no doubt that the Atlanta Falcons are still one of the most outstanding teams this season. In fact, this is one of the most successful seasons in team history.
This team was founded in 1965, when Rankin M Smith, an insurance executive in Atlanta, established the Falcons. When fans voted for a team name, many fans suggested the name "Falcons". names, but only one, Julia Elliott, a high school teacher from a neighboring city, emerged as the winner.
The reason why she chose such a name is that "the falcon is proud and noble because of its bravery and good fighting skills. It never leaves its prey. This is like a traditional virtue in sports."
This has become the theme of the Atlanta Falcons team.
Compared with other teams with a long history in the league, this is a young team, and it is not a traditional strong team. It has a weak presence in the league and has never won a Super Bowl championship. In the forty-seven seasons so far, they have reached the playoffs twelve times and won the division championship five times, which cannot be regarded as a dazzling record.
But it is worth mentioning that six of the twelve playoff appearances occurred after the millennium; and three of the five division championship performances occurred in the new century. In other words, this team has undergone a radical transformation in the 21st century and has become a powerful team in the National League South Division.
To be precise, the rise of the Atlanta Falcons occurred in the 1998 season.
In 1997, the year before the 1998 season, legendary coach Dan Reeves took over the team and introduced veteran quarterback Chris Chandler, who had been in the league for nearly ten years and was still inactive. There was also running back Jamal Anderson (Jamal Anderson), the 201st pick in the seventh round of the team's own draft at that time. These three core figures gathered together.
Originally, the team seemed to have no bright spots, but with the right arrangement and combination, sparks were created. After a season of polishing, they blossomed in the 1998 season. Not only did they win the division championship, but they also made it into the NBA in one go In the Super Bowl, they met the defending champion Denver Broncos, but unfortunately lost the game with a score of "19:34".
In fact, neither quarterback Chris Chandler nor running back Jamal Anderson are top legends in the league. After the outbreak of the 1998 season, they gradually disappeared from the public. It seemed that they would become professional players in one season. All the energy of his career exploded.
But it is undeniable that this season successfully allowed the Falcons to complete their transformation, getting on track from drafting and team building to player recruitment. After the league was rezoned in 2002, they became a member of the National League South Division. A strong team.
The 1998 season was the only time in the history of the Atlanta Falcons that they reached the Super Bowl. In addition, in the 2004 season, the Falcons also entered the National League Finals, but unfortunately lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
In 2008, the Atlanta Falcons hired Mike Smith as head coach. Although the coach had been an NFL coach since 1982, he had always been an auxiliary coach on the defensive team until the Falcons were bold and bold. He was promoted to the position of head coach, which became another turning point for the team.
After Mike Smith took office, he selected quarterback Matt Ryan with the No. 3 pick in the first round of the draft that year. The offensive team had the most important piece of the puzzle and entered the season four times in the following five years. In the postseason, they won the division championship twice in the 2010 and 2012 seasons. Even when facing the New Orleans Saints at their peak, they showed strong competitiveness.
It is no exaggeration to say that the Atlanta Falcons are now in the most competitive period in the history of the team. They have achieved a record of 13 wins and three losses this season, replicating the success of 2010, but the offensive and defensive ends are different. The performance is even better.
In the 2010 season, after entering the playoffs, the Atlanta Falcons were defeated by the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers with a score of "21:48"; this season, the Atlanta Falcons faced the Green Bay Packers again in the playoffs. Although they worked hard, they made no mistakes, "37:35", and maintained the winning result until the end, avoiding making the same mistakes again.
Now, standing opposite them is the San Francisco 49ers, who remain undefeated so far this season!
Once upon a time, the Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers were mortal enemies in the same district.
From 1970 to 2001, before the league was rezoned, the two teams also belonged to the National League West Division. They met 62 times in history. The San Francisco 49ers, who had the upper hand, gained the advantage in the matchup. The Falcons The overall record is twenty-four wins and thirty-eight losses.
But what's interesting is that all of these encounters came from the regular season, and the two teams have never faced off in the playoffs.
On the one hand, the San Francisco 49ers were always at their peak during this period, and the strength comparison between the two sides was quite disparate. They had never even met in the playoffs; on the other hand, after the rezoning in 2002, ten years have passed in the blink of an eye. The number of games between teams is even more limited, and the so-called atmosphere of enemies in the same district has long since dissipated.
Now that they are facing each other again, there is not much tit-for-tat between the two teams, and the smell of gunpowder has become much thinner. Everything is just about winning the game. They both hope to return to the Super Bowl stage. The Falcons' last The trip to the Super Bowl was in 1998, while the 49ers went back to 1994. They have been waiting for a long time and are looking forward to a breakthrough this year.
Analyzing purely from the perspective of strength, this game is undoubtedly a collision of Mars and Earth. It is not just a series of numbers in the regular season wins and losses, but also the sparks of the showdown can be foreseen from the aspect of hard power——
The offensive team ranks third in the San Francisco 49ers and sixth in the Atlanta Falcons; the defensive team ranks second in the San Francisco 49ers and fifth in the Atlanta Falcons.
Except for the Denver Broncos who were unexpectedly eliminated, the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons are the two teams with the most average and strongest overall strength. These two teams have always maintained the top two spots in the official strength rankings. It can be considered that the number of wins and losses reflects the overall strength of both offense and defense to a certain extent.
If the American League finals are a "war of contradictions", a duel between offense and defense; then the National League finals are a "total offense, total defense", an all-round competition in different links.
At the end of the first half of the season, the entire league began to look forward to this confrontation. The mainstream view was that this would definitely be one of the highlights of the National League this season. After waiting for two months, the two top teams finally lived up to expectations. The National League finals between the two teams can definitely be called the pinnacle showdown of swordsmanship in Huashan!
greatly awaited! Absolutely highly anticipated!
By the way, the last time the two teams met was in the fourth week of the 2010 regular season. At that time, the San Francisco 49ers, who were at a low point, lost to the Atlanta Falcons, who were on the rise, with a narrow score of "14:16". .
For Lu Ke, this is a brand new opponent!
From the players to the tactics, from the style to the methods, everything is brand new, which also means that he must go all out. Any slightest negligence may ruin their efforts and hard work throughout the season. Although the opponent was not Aaron Rodgers as the media expected, Lu Ke knew that Matt Ryan's threat was definitely not inferior to any quarterback in the league!
During last year's Pro Bowl, Lu Ke and Matt Ryan became friends. Although they didn't communicate much, their relationship was still extraordinary. Unexpectedly, this year they were about to compete on the field, fighting for a spot in the Super Bowl. Can this be considered a kind of fate?
In a blink of an eye, race day is here! It's the National League finals again, and we're sitting at Candlestick Stadium again, so what's the outcome this time?
