49ers: Game breakdown and prediction for Week 12 against the Packers

A slew of tough games for the San Francisco 49ers starts here with an Aaron Rodgers meeting in Levi’s Stadium. Will the Niners be able to handle a matchup with another elite QB?

The San Francisco 49ers put their 9-1 record on the line this week against the best quarterback they’ve faced all year in Aaron Rodgers.

We saw what happened the last time this team faced an elite, future Hall-of-Fame quarterback and they ended up losing their undefeated season in a great game.

Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks presented the 49ers with similar problems that they could face this week against Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers in that they threw the ball downfield very well and had a mobile quarterback who could handle pressure in the pocket.

But the difference here between the Seahawks and Packers as it relates to their matchups with the 49ers lay in their offensive line play.

One game that really stands out to me that the Packers had was their last trip out West in Week 9 against the Los Angeles Chargers. The Bolts crushed the Pack 26-11 and won the battle in the trenches rather handily.

Los Angeles’ offensive line was already beat-up with the losses of their starting center and left tackle, but still was able to bully and push around Green Bay’s offensive and defensive lines and limit the great Aaron Rodgers to just 11 point and 161 passing yards on the day.

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The schedule does not lighten up anytime soon for the 49ers and this game here could very well be their second loss of the year. But I think we’re going to see a very similar game to that Packers/Chargers game with the 49ers (this time) being the ones who push Green Bay around.

This is the No. 2 defense in all of football we’re talking about here in the 49ers which is also the number one unit in sacks. Their run defense took a big hit with the loss of Kwon Alexander in the linebacking core and the Packers run their offense primarily through Aaron Jones in the backfield.

But if the 49ers can stop the bleeding there just a little bit, I think they’ll be able to win this game rather convincingly. San Francisco has the No. 1 pass defense in the league on top of leading the world in sacks.

So even though Rodgers poses a very similar problem that Russell Wilson did two weeks back, I don’t think Rodgers has the line players around him, nor the advantage of seeing the 49ers very often like Wilson had, to pull off the upset here.

I have the 49ers taking this one 32-26.

They’ll be tested again and A-Rodg will make a late push, but in the end, I think their defensive line will take over and Green Bay’s defense won’t be able to stop very many Jimmy Garoppolo drives.