The Green Bay Packers have had months to think about their last meeting with the 49ers.
And those memories haven’t been sweet ones.
Many Packers still have visions of No. 7 making plays all over the field, rushing for 181 yards and two scores and throwing for two more touchdowns.
Niners quarterback Colin Kaepernick was brilliant in that 45-31 playoff victory, and Green Bay looked helpless for most of the game trying to stop San Francisco’s read-option offense.
Now, heading into the 49ers’ opening game of the 2013 season Sunday against Green Bay at Candlestick Park (1:25 p.m.), the Packers say they’re eager for a rematch, to show they can stop the read option and slow down Kaepernick.
“We had an entire off-season to focus on last year’s loss, having time to kind of figure out a way to defend that,” said Packers linebacker Clay Matthews. “We obviously like to think we’re better prepared to defend that type of offense and what he brings to the table.”
It’s a marquee matchup in Week 1 of the NFL season, featuring two premier quarterbacks (Kaepernick and Aaron Rodgers), a 49ers defense that appears to be even better than it was in 2012 and two excellent coaches in the Niners’ Jim Harbaugh and Green Bay’s Mike McCarthy.
San Francisco 49ers
Oddsmakers have made the 49ers 4½-point favorites.
Niners fans are eager to see how the offseason changes to their team translate to on-field performance against one of the NFL’s best teams. Rookie safety Eric Reid will start, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha and defensive lineman Glenn Dorsey should see significant action and new wide receivers Anquan Boldin, Quinton Patton, Marlon Moore and Jonathan Baldwin will be part of a remade receiving corps.
But how Sunday’s game goes might hinge on how the Packers’ defense does in containing Kaepernick as a runner on the option. In the playoff game, he was unstoppable, and the Packers’ defense looked slow and helpless.
Now, the Packers have been talking the past week about the advances they’ve made in playing the option and saying they’re not going to be shy about putting some big hits on the 49ers quarterback when he’s running or carrying out his fakes.
“One of the things that the referees have told us is that when the quarterbacks carry out the fakes, they lose their right as a quarterback, a pocket-passing quarterback, the protection of a quarterback,” Matthews told reporters this week. “So with that, you do have to take your shots on the quarterback, and obviously they’re too important to their offense.
“If that means they pull them out of that type of offense and make them run a traditional, drop-back, pocket-style offense, I think that’s exactly what we’re going for. So you want to put hits as early and often on the quarterback and make them uncomfortable.”
The game will be about more than just how the Packers can stop Kaepernick, however. Rodgers has had four straight seasons with a passer rating over 100 – tying Steve Young’s NFL record – and the 49ers will need to put the pressure on him to keep from picking apart the secondary.
It’s possible Rodgers will try to exploit Reid in his NFL debut, or go after Asomugha, who’s likely to be the No. 3 corner Sunday.
The Packers lost starting left tackle Bryan Bulaga this preseason, however, so Green Bay could be vulnerable to the Niners’ pass rush.
