If the Green Bay Packers win on Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, coach Matt LaFleur will make some impressive history. As Rob Demovsky of ESPN points out, with a win, he will become the sixth coach to reach the Super Bowl in their first year as a head coach.

The first five head coaches to complete the feat were Jim Caldwell, Bill Callahan, George Seifert, Red Miller, and Don McCafferty. Caldwell was the last one to do it with the Indianapolis Colts in 2009. Each of the last two first-year head coaches to make the Super Bowl ended up losing that game.

To make the Super Bowl, the Packers are going to have an uphill climb against a 49ers team that dominated them earlier in the season. After the loss, Matt LaFleur said he would go back and watch it with a fine-tooth comb.

“I've got to go back and watch that tape again to really try to grasp what happened and why it happened and how can we adjust and what are we going to do to ensure it doesn't happen [again],” LaFleur said via Rob Demovsky of ESPN. “That'll happen over the next couple days.”

The 49ers are coming off a dominating win against the Minnesota Vikings, and it's likely going to take a near-perfect game from LaFleur to get the job done.

RECOMMENDED (Article Continues Below)
GM Brian Gutekunst in the middle, Cooper DeJean, Kiran Amegadjie, Junior Colson around him, and Green Bay Packers wallpaper in the background

Enzo Flojo ·

In addition, San Francisco will not be underestimating the Packers when the two teams face off in the NFC Championship Game. Leading into the matchup, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan expressed that it would be ‘stupid' to put too much stock into their regular-season meeting with Green Bay.

“Don’t be that stupid,” Shanahan said, via ESPN.com. “That’s not real. This is about Sunday’s game . . . There’s so many stories like that. And this is the NFL, so no team, the game before never matters like that. There are four teams left and that’s four very, very good teams and it’s going to be a hard game for all of us. Also, our players — the type of guys they’ve been all year — I’m not concerned about that. They’ll have to answer that question, I’m sure, a lot. But I don’t think that will be a worry for our players, which means it won’t be for me.”

Hopefully, Matt LaFleur found some things in the first meeting that he can exploit in this game. If he doesn't, this could be another blowout.