49ers Want to End Favre’s Cold Spell

Now the truth comes out. San Francisco’s Steve Mariucci used to coach quarterbacks in Green Bay, and he has a steamy little secret that helps explain why Brett Favre plays as if he has antifreeze in his veins.

“We used to hold quarterback meetings in the sauna,” said Mariucci, whose 49ers play at Green Bay today in an NFC wild-card game. “I used to go in there at halftime with Brett and Mark Brunell. We’d get warm real fast.”

Aha, of course, the Finnish formula. So, Steve, is the visitors’ locker room equipped with a sauna too?

“Heck no.”

No wonder the Packers have never lost a playoff game at Lambeau Field, and Favre is 30-0 at home when the temperature at kickoff is 34 degrees or colder.

“Cold is the key, and the quarterback being able to handle it,” Mariucci said. “You’ve got to remember not to overdress with, like, 13 layers of thermals. You’ll see guys burning their shoes on those heaters.”

Once, during a game against the Los Angeles Rams in December 1992, Mariucci spotted an opposing player inch too close to a sideline heater featuring an open flame. The players’ ankle tape caught fire and he wound up with a singed foot.

Today, the Green Bay forecast calls for partly cloudy skies with temperatures ranging from the mid-20s to the low 30s. Regardless of the weather, the Packers are ready.

“We live in it,” running back Ahman Green said. “We go to the grocery store, we go to our mailboxes, we drive home in it, and it’s no big deal for us to get ready for it on Sunday because we’re in it every day, day in and day out. That’s how we get over the mental aspect of it real quick.”

Mariucci, whose roster is loaded with young players, regaled them this week with stories about the cold, the jet-engine-loud Green Bay fans, and the 49ers’ recent problems at Lambeau, where they haven’t won since 1990.

But he also reminded them they had been picked to finish around .500--not 12-4--and of how Garrison Hearst stunned everyone with his comeback, how Jeff Garcia became the first quarterback in franchise history to throw 30 touchdown passes in consecutive seasons, how their defense has posted a franchise-record three shutouts.

“We’ve done so many things this season that we weren’t supposed to be able to do,” he said. “This is just another thing for us to accomplish.”

Never before has a team with 12 victories opened with a wild-card game on the road. But the fourth-seeded Packers earned the right to host the fifth-seeded 49ers by virtue of a better record in conference games.

Since 1995, these teams have played four times in the playoffs, the Packers winning the first three before the 49ers answered with a 30-27 victory in a wild-card game at San Francisco in 1999--Green Bay’s last appearance in the playoffs.

Terrell Owens won it for the 49ers with a 25-yard touchdown catch with three seconds to play, hanging onto the ball while sandwiched between two Packer defenders at the goal line.

“I think that’s when Terrell Owens made a name for himself,” defensive end Vonnie Holliday told the Green Bay Press-Gazette this week. “That’s a very, very bitter memory of the playoffs. It was a great play, a great throw and a great catch. But hopefully we can go out and create a new memory.”

The 49ers established the run this season, finishing with 2,244 yards rushing--second to Pittsburgh’s 2,774--and a No. 4 ranking overall. And the Packer defense, a sometime thing, has been especially vulnerable to the run, having allowed 1,769 yards rushing. The Tennessee Titans, with only the eighth-ranking offense, amassed 423 yards in a mid-December 26-20 victory over Green Bay.

Owens, who has feuded with Mariucci all season, might be churlish and divisive, but he’s also one of the NFL’s best receivers and Garcia’s favorite target. He has 93 catches for 1,412 yards with 16 touchdowns. He’s a good blocker, too, and will test a Packer secondary that has given up only 14 touchdown passes, fourth in the NFL.

It’s likely that Owens frequently will draw cornerback Mike McKenzie, who is much more physical than fellow corner Tyrone Williams.

San Francisco’s 13th-ranked defense has made dramatic strides after finishing 31st in 1999 and 29th last season. The 49ers have posted their three shutouts in the last six weeks, and the unit also held Philadelphia to a field goal, pulling off consecutive goal-line stands in that 13-3 victory.

Green Bay’s defense collected 52 sacks--20 more than the 49ers--which was second in the NFC. End Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila had 131/2, third best in the conference.

But the real Packer stars are Favre, who finished third in MVP voting, and Green, who rolled up 1,981 yards from scrimmage. Favre has a career passer rating of 91.1 in the playoffs, and has thrown at least one touchdown pass in 10 consecutive postseason games. And, as he has proven time and again, he can get hot when it’s cold.

That brings us to another Mariucci secret, one that blows the cover on Green Bay’s mystique. Blasphemy, really.

“You know,” he said, “it’s cold for them too.”