NFL DIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS / NFC

San Francisco (13-4) at Atlanta (14-2)

9:30 a.m., Channel 11

* HEAD TO HEAD: The NFC West rivals split their two meetings, with the 49ers winning, 31-20, on Sept. 27 at San Francisco as Steve Young passed for 387 yards and three touchdowns and Jerry Rice caught eight passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns. In the rematch Nov. 15 at Atlanta, the Falcons limited the 49ers to 76 yards rushing and won, 31-19, after taking a 24-6 lead. Chris Chandler passed for 198 yards, including a 78-yard touchdown pass to Terance Mathis that clinched the victory with 2:51 remaining, and Jamal Anderson ran for 100 yards and two touchdowns.

* SCOUTING THE 49ERS: Lost in the hoopla after the 49ers’ last-second victory over the Green Bay Packers last Sunday was the fact that, until his 25-yard game-winning pass to Terrell Owens, Young wasn’t as sharp as usual. Though he completed 18 of 32 passes for 182 yards and three touchdowns, he passed for only 106 yards before the last possession, with two interceptions. The strong running of Garrison Hearst, who rushed for 128 yards despite a tender hamstring, and an opportunistic defense, which got a lift from Charles Haley and picked off two Brett Favre passes, kept the 49ers in the game.

* SCOUTING THE FALCONS: Champions of the NFC West for the first time since 1980, the Falcons won their last nine games. They set a club record by averaging 27.6 points, matched a team mark with seven games of 30 or more points and enjoyed great balance from Anderson, who rushed for 1,846 yards, and Chandler, who passed for 25 touchdowns, with only 12 interceptions. They led the league in time of possession. Defensively, the Falcons give up only 18.1 points a game. They ranked second in the league against the run and led the NFL with 44 takeaways.

* NOW YOU KNOW: The 49ers are 0-4 on the road against playoff teams this season and haven’t defeated a winning team away from home since Dec. 15, 1996, when they won at Pittsburgh, 25-15.

* THEY SAID IT: 49er defensive tackle Brentson Buckner, on his team’s Nov. 15 loss to the Falcons: “They had that look in their eyes like, ‘We’re in our own backyard. We’re going to do what it takes to win,’ and they just kept doing it.”

* THE LINE: Falcons by 3 1/2.