Defense and home field give 49ers the advantage

The New Orleans Saints are heading west for their divisional playoff game at San Francisco.

As for performance on the road, the Saints can only hope that’s heading north.

New Orleans is 0-4 in road playoff games — not counting its neutral-site Super Bowl victory, of course — and joins Cincinnati (0-5) as the only clubs to lose all of its postseason games in the opposing team’s city.

The Saints were 8-0 in the Superdome this season (plus a first-round victory last Saturday over Detroit), and lost three on the road — two to bad teams. They lost their opener at Green Bay, which is understandable, but also dropped games at Tampa Bay and St. Louis.

Saints Coach Sean Payton is not concerned that his team is any different on the road. After all, the last road loss came Oct. 30, and the Saints unquestionably are red hot. They rolled up 626 yards of offense in their 45-28 rout of the Lions.

“You win 13, 14 games now, and you’re trying to find something,” Payton said. “When you start playing well on the road and home, you’re probably a better team, and we’ve been able to do that.”

Here they come

The Saints surprised the 49ers in an exhibition opener this season when New Orleans dialed up the blitz 18 times in the first half, collecting six sacks in the first two quarters and each by a different defender. It’s unusual to blitz so much in a preseason game.

The Saints spread the wealth in Gregg Williams’ defense — 14 players have at least one sack this season, with safety Roman Harper racking up a team-high 7 1/2.

The 49ers can take comfort in the fact that quarterback Alex Smith has the league’s third-best passer rating against the blitz (96.3), behind Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (131.4) and New England’s Tom Brady (110.9). When facing the blitz, Smith completed 90 of 152 passes for 1,097 yards with eight touchdowns and one interception.

Conference call

The Pittsburgh Steelers have been to an NFL-high 15 conference title games since 1970, one more than the Dallas Cowboys.

San Francisco is not far behind, and can get to 13 by beating New Orleans.

The 49ers have returned to the playoffs for the first time since the 2002 season, when they lost in the divisional round at Tampa Bay, 31-6.

“You tend to be a little jealous of the guys that are playing in the playoffs,” 49ers safety Donte Whitner said. “We’ll be one of eight teams, and hopefully after we’ll be one of four. We’re going to enjoy this.”

Teams with the most appearances in a Conference Championship Game since 1970 (*Play host to New Orleans Saturday): Pittsburgh Steelers, 15; Dallas Cowboys, 14; San Francisco 49ers*, 12; Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, 11; Los Angeles/St. Louis Rams, 9.

It’s a Brees

Week after week, New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees scrawls his name in the NFL record books.

He threw for 466 yards in a wild-card victory over Detroit last weekend, a year after passing for 404 yards in a wild-card loss at Seattle.

He’s the third player in league history to throw for at least 400 yards in multiple postseason games — joining Dan Marino (two) and Peyton Manning (two) — and the first to do so in back-to-back playoff games.

What’s more, Brees is on another hot streak. He’s thrown 215 consecutive postseason passes without an interception, an NFL record.

Another view

Fox’s Michael Strahan on 5-foot-6 Saints running back Darren Sproles, who’s averaging 6.9 yards per carry and is the team’s second-leading receiver: “It’s aggravating to watch a little guy like that run through everyone. He’s so small you can’t see him and so fast you can’t keep up. He is a problem for everyone defensively.”

By the numbers

How the teams compare statistically. Stats are per-game averages, except for sacks and turnover differential, which are for season (league rank in parentheses):

Category / Saints / 49ers

Points scored / 34.2 (2) /23.8 (11)

Points allowed / 21.2 (13) / 14.3 (2)

Pass offense / 334. 2 (1) / 183.1 (29)

Rush offense / 132.9 (6) / 127.8 (8)

Pass defense / 259.8 (30) / 230.9 (16)

Rush defense / 108.6 (12) / 77.2 (1)

Sacks / 33 (19) / 42 (7)

Penalties / 6.2 (15) / 7.1 (26)

Turnovers / -3 (21) / +28 (1)

Farmer’s pick

The 49ers are allowing just 10.9 points a game at home and have the league’s best run defense. The Saints need that run/pass balance to set up their play-action and bootleg game. If they can’t run, they’ll have problems. 49ers 27, Saints 24.