NFL Playoff Schedule 2012: Why 49ers Are Most Dangerous Team Still Standing

The San Francisco 49ers weren't supposed to beat the New Orleans Saints this past Saturday. They were supposed to kindly get out of the way, allowing the Saints to make their way to Green Bay for the NFC Championship Game. Their stop in San Francisco would be a mere layover.

The 49ers decided to make things difficult. Like, really difficult.

I'm not going to bother recapping exactly what happened, but it suffice it to say that the 49ers gave the Saints one hell of a fight. Thanks to a little help from Alex Smith and Vernon Davis, they were able to pull out one of the most thrilling victories in NFL playoff history.

The question now is whether the 49ers have anything left. After upsetting the Saints, do they have any fire reserved for the NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants and, if they get there, the Super Bowl?

I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes. I'm giving the 49ers the benefit of the doubt in doing so, but they've earned it.

Shoot, they've been earning it all season. Their formula for winning games during the regular season wasn't sexy, but it was effective. All they had to do was prove that a whole lot of defense and just enough offense was good enough to win in the postseason.

Yeah, I think it is.

Make no mistake, this is a defense that can hang with anyone. The fact that they allowed 32 points and 472 total yards to the Saints may not be all that impressive at first glance, but those numbers aren't too shabby once you realize that Drew Brees threw the ball 63 times.

To boot, the Saints really weren't doing much before they broke through with two long touchdowns at the end of the game.

If the 49ers can bother the Saints that much, then they can sure as hell bother the Giants. Eli Manning may end up pushing the 60-throw mark by the end of the game, and anybody in blue better be prepared to hold on tight whenever they have the ball. The 49ers forced five turnovers against the Saints, and none of them were flukes.

The intensity that the 49ers were playing with on defense against the Saints simply couldn't be ignored. On any given play, Justin Smith was plowing his way to Brees' position and the 49ers' secondary was leaving him with nothing but checkdown options. When a Saints player had the football, the 49ers attacked like a gang of ravenous wolves.

The Giants better be ready to endure a similar onslaught. They did well against Green Bay's soft defense (yeah, I said it), but doing well against this 49ers defense is going to be considerably more difficult.

As for the 49ers' offense, we found out on Saturday that it should also be feared. They don't have much in the way of playmakers, but it's clear now that Alex Smith has a flair for the dramatic and that he knows he can just force it to Vernon Davis when he needs a play. The dude is virtually uncoverable.

In addition, you have to fear the guys calling the shots. Jim Harbaugh and his staff demonstrated with that design run for Smith late in the fourth quarter that they are not afraid to take chances, and anybody who watched the 49ers during the regular season will know that Harbaugh has other tricks up his sleeve.

As a total package, it's apparent that not much has changed in the playoffs for the 49ers. It's still all about great defense, just enough offense and a few quirks here and there.

It doesn't sound dangerous, but it is. The 49ers' defense is good enough to level the playing field against any offense, whether we're talking the Saints, the Giants, the Baltimore Ravens or even the New England Patriots.

Once the playing field is leveled, it's a simple matter of putting an adequate amount of points on the board. San Francisco's offense isn't great, but it doesn't have to be great to do that. 

None of this is to say that the 49ers are decidedly unbeatable, mind you. They're tough to beat, but they're not impossible to beat. 

They're just tougher to beat than most teams, and I'll wager that they're tougher to beat than any of the other three teams still standing.

And lest you think that this is all just a bunch of nonsense from an over-caffeinated fanboy, I'll say this:

I'm actually a Raider fan.

AFC Championship Game

Baltimore Ravens at New England Patriots—Sunday, Jan. 22 at 3:00 p.m. ET on CBS

NFC Championship Game

New York Giants at San Francisco 49ers—Sunday, Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. ET on Fox

Super Bowl XLVI

Sunday, Feb. 5 at 6:30 p.m. ET on NBC