Giants vs. 49ers: Why the Weather Will Have More Impact Than Any Player

There is a chance that the rain and the soggy turf at Candlestick Park late Sunday afternoon won’t have any impact as the New York Giants take on the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game.

And there’s a chance that aliens will land at the 50-yard line, too.

Candlestick is not the greatest place to play a game in the wet and the damp. For one thing, it’s just about a dozen feet above sea level, and the sea—in the form of San Francisco Bay—is right next door.

Because of that, the field does not drain well. That means that a high-powered passing attack like that of the Giants could have some issues. Quarterback Eli Manning may have trouble throwing as accurately as he would like.

His fine corps of receivers—Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks—is just as likely to have trouble running accurate routes. And that’s not what you want against a team like the 49ers that is great at forcing turnovers.

San Francisco, on the other hand, relies heavily on that defense and an offense led by running back Frank Gore. Traditionally, running teams are somewhat less impacted by bad weather than are passing teams, but it would only take one muffed handoff of a rain-slicked football between quarterback Alex Smith and Gore for the ball to pop loose at an inopportune time.

The other downside for the 49ers is that they haven’t played in bad weather this season. They have played about 400 times on the far side of the continent, but for all of that, San Francisco has dodged precipitation.

Until now.

Time for E.T. to phone home from Candlestick?