Giants, 49ers are staying in the ‘now’

Reporting from San Francisco -- Who can forget those epic battles between the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers, games woven into the fabric of NFL lore?

Bill Parcells matching wits with Bill Walsh. Phil Simms versus Joe Montana. Steve Young. Lawrence Taylor. Jerry Rice. Mark Bavaro. Botched snaps. Brutal hits. Broken dreams. Bitter-cold Gatorade showers.

But break off the rearview mirror. Set fire to the yellowed statistics. Who cares that the New York Giants and San Francisco 49ers have already played seven times in the postseason, a matchup that has produced four eventual Super Bowl champions?

Certainly not Giants safety Antrel Rolle, who shrugs off the history behind Sunday’s showdown.

“We’re aware of the history between these two teams,” Rolle said this week. “But it has nothing to do with Sunday.”

Brian Jennings, long snapper for the 49ers, is the only player on either team who was around when San Francisco beat the Giants, 39-38, in a wild-card game on Jan. 5, 2003. That was the most recent meeting of the storied franchises in the postseason.

These players are living in the now, and for good reason. They are one victory away from representing the NFC in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. That’s particularly remarkable, considering San Francisco is a year removed from a 6-10 finish and the Giants endured a four-game losing streak this season that nearly torpedoed their hopes.

But here they are, two teams that got here the hard way, upsetting the NFC’s two powerhouse offenses, the 49ers beating New Orleans and the Giants topping Green Bay.

“We always knew we are a good football team,” Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora said. “The way we were getting beat before, I don’t think we were getting annihilated, we were making mistakes. We knew once we fixed those mistakes, we would have a good chance of being a good football team. For some reason, we were able to correct them at the right time and everything is coming together right now. “

The same can be said of the 49ers, who showed against New Orleans that they have a passing game to go with their pounding ground attack and stifling defense. Quarterback Alex Smith — revitalized under first-year Coach Jim Harbaugh — came through under enormous pressure, producing a pair of touchdowns down the stretch against the Saints on a 28-yard keeper and then on a pinpoint 14-yard pass to Vernon Davis with nine seconds to play.

The result: another matchup against the Giants for all the marbles in the NFC and the right to face the winner of the Baltimore-New England game on the league’s biggest stage.

The Giants and 49ers played earlier this season, with San Francisco winning at home, 27-20, on Nov. 13 — the game that triggered New York’s four-game slide.

New York didn’t have running back Ahmad Bradshaw in the first meeting, and for the second half was also missing linebacker Michael Boley, the defensive signal-caller. With Boley watching from the sideline, San Francisco tight ends Davis and Delanie Walker did significant damage.

These Giants are a different team, something the 49ers have emphasized all week.

“We wouldn’t say we’re unstoppable, but our mind-set is extreme at this point,” Rolle said. “We’re not going to be denied.”

In the end, of course, one of the teams will be. And if history is a guide, this game should be close. In the seven postseason matchups between these clubs, San Francisco has a 4-3 edge, although this is only the second time they have met in the NFC championship game.

Overall, the Giants are 4-0 in conference title games, and the 49ers are 5-7.

The most recent playoff game between the teams was also the most controversial.

In that 2003 game, the Giants built a 24-point lead on the back of four first-half touchdown passes by Kerry Collins. But Jeff Garcia led the 49ers back with four scoring drives, giving San Francisco a 39-38 lead.

The Giants lined up for a field-goal attempt as time expired, but just-signed long snapper Trey Junkin botched the snap. Holder Matt Allen picked up the ball, rolled to his right and heaved it toward eligible offensive lineman Rich Seubert. The pass fell incomplete as Seubert was pulled to the ground by 49ers linebacker Chike Okeafor.

The play was flagged because officials first ruled Seubert was an ineligible receiver. So that penalty was waved off, but there was no pass-interference call — a mistake for which the NFL later apologized. The Giants were not given a chance to replay the down, and the game ended.

Asked the next day about the NFL’s admitting officials blew the call, 49ers coach Steve Mariucci famously shrugged and said: “Bummer.”

The 49ers too have had their share of bummer memories against the Giants.

There was the wild-card game in the 1985 season, when the 49ers lost at the Meadowlands, 17-3, with Joe Montana throwing for 296 yards yet coming away without a touchdown.

The next season, Montana was knocked out of a 49-3 road loss in a divisional game, and those Giants went on to win their first Super Bowl.

In early 1991, the 49ers lost a postseason game to the Giants for the third consecutive time, falling at home in the conference title game, 15-13.

Montana was once again knocked out of that game, leaving Steve Young to finish. The Giants were without their No. 1 quarterback too, as Jeff Hostetler was playing in place of Phil Simms, who had suffered a season-ending foot injury a few weeks earlier.

The 49ers kept the Giants out of the end zone, and with less than three minutes to play appeared on their way to victory. But Roger Craig fumbled, the Giants recovered, and New York’s Matt Bahr made his fifth field goal of the game to clinch the victory.

“To lose to a team kicking five field goals was like that was an extra slap in the face,” recalled ESPN’s Young this week, pointing out the 49ers had a chance to win a third consecutive Lombardi Trophy. “It was like, it was the Giants, No. 1. No. 2, it was our three-peat. No. 3, we fumbled with it kind of in our hands. And we got beat by five field goals. It was rough, to say the least.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com

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