49ers upset Packers, setting up potential NFC West showdown if Rams beat Buccaneers

The San Francisco 49ers won their second straight road playoff game on Saturday, defeating the Green Bay Packers by a 13-10 score, and they will need to win a third if they want to get to SoFi Stadium for the Super Bowl. Will that next game also be in SoFi Stadium? That’s up to the LA Rams to decide on Sunday.

If the Rams beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium at 12 PM PT, then they will host the NFC Championship game one week later. The visiting team would be the 49ers and familiar nemesis Kyle Shanahan. However, if the Buccaneers beat the Rams, then San Francisco is heading to Tampa Bay and the narrative you’ll hear all week is that former Patriots rivals Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo will be head-to-head rivals for NFC teams playing for the right to go to the Super Bowl.

Which again, will be held in Los Angeles. If the the Rams win against the Buccaneers, then the next two games will be in L.A. and the narrative is Sean McVay against Kyle Shanahan instead.

Shanahan has won the last six meetings, while McVay won three of the first four.

The fallout in Green Bay is that Aaron Rodgers could decide to take himself out of the running to win the NFC Championship next season by demanding a trade from the Packers. An already tense situation centered around the premise that Rodgers’ talent is being wasted in Green Bay just got tenser as the Packers failed to reach the Super Bowl for the 11th year in a row. The offense scored just 10 points and Rodgers was sacked five times and even if the temperatures were exceptionally low, Green Bay is not supposed to be unfamiliar with these conditions.

The 49ers could have just knocked Rodgers out of the playoffs and out of the NFC.

Before the Rams can worry about the consequences of tonight though, they need to get past tomorrow.