Two of the most illustrious and tenured teams are the Green Bay Packers and the San Francisco 49ers. They have nine Lombardi titles between them, five from San Francisco and four from Green Bay.
A record-tying eleventh postseason meeting between the two clubs is due to take place at Levi’s Stadium on Saturday at 5:15 p.m. PST. The teams have faced off nine times already.
While several have happened recently, the first four happened in succession from the 1996 to 1999 seasons. The first three were in the divisional round, and the Packers, led by Brett Favre, prevailed handily. The outcomes were similar even though the 1998 rematch took place in the NFC Championship game.
That season, in the wild-card round, San Francisco defeated Green Bay four times before winning their first postseason matchup. Steve Young went back and found Terrell Owens about 25 yards down the field for the game-winning touchdown with eight seconds left and the Niners behind by four points.
In the wild card round three seasons later (2002), the Packers paid it forward with a 25-15 victory. The rematch between the two teams in the postseason took some time.
Time travel to 2013, when Colin Kaepernick replaced Alex Smith in the middle of the season and Aaron Rodgers played against him. Even though it appeared tight at first, San Francisco won 45–24 to go forward. However, they would return the next year.
Phil Dawson’s game-winning field goal with seconds remaining sealed the 49ers’ two consecutive postseason victories over Green Bay.
San Francisco and Green Bay had faced each other six times in the postseason by 2014. For both fanbases, the two more recent matchups are probably more current memories.
They squared off in the NFC Championship Game in 2020. Rodgers was still the starting quarterback, of course, but he started against Jimmy Garoppolo with Raheem Mostert—who had a fantastic game—at running back. Three straight postseason losses for the Packers against San Francisco followed their surprising early lead. Despite appearing to fight back, the Packers were ultimately unable to overcome the early hole.
And then there was their last and most recent appearance in the 2022 divisional round. This game was as tight and tense as the matchup from 1999, but there wasn’t much scoring.
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