NFC Championship, 2011: New York Giants 20 San Francisco 17

Game information
For the fifth time in conference championship history and for the third time in five years, overtime decided the game, and as it was in the 2007 NFC Championship Game, a field goal by Lawrence Tynes was the winning score as the Giants defeated the 49ers for their fifth NFC Championship Game victory. The Giants became the third team in NFL history to advance to the Super Bowl with fewer than 10 wins during a 16-game regular season, joining the 1979 Los Angeles Rams and the 2008 Arizona Cardinals. (Additionally, Green Bay won Super Bowl II after a 9–4–1 season.)

The 49ers scored the first touchdown of the game as quarterback Alex Smith connected with tight end Vernon Davis deep for a 73-yard touchdown pass midway through the opening quarter. Davis was called for an excessive celebration penalty after he climbed atop the camera tower in the back of the end zone, which forced David Akers to kick off from the 49ers' 20-yard line. San Francisco took possession of the ball on downs when New York failed to convert a fourth-and-1 situation from their 34-yard line. On the first play of the ensuing drive the 49ers attempted an end-around reverse play where receiver Kyle Williams would be the ball carrier. Williams, however, could not handle the handoff on the end-around and fumbled the ball but was able to recover when the ball squirted out of the grasp of a Giants defender. The 49ers punted three plays later, but this would not be the last time Williams' ball-handling would cause his team trouble during the game.

The Giants tied the score on the next drive, as Eli Manning found tight end Bear Pascoe for a six-yard touchdown pass to complete a 10-play, 69-yard drive. Manning completed passes to wide receiver Victor Cruz twice on the drive, one for a large gain that afforded New York the football in San Francisco territory. It was among two of 10 catches that Cruz made during the game. They then gained the lead on the last drive of the half, as Tynes converted the first of two successful field goals with a 31-yard kick. Cruz was again Manning's key target on the drive, with four receptions including a catch that set up Tynes' attempt. With 5:18 remaining in the third quarter, the 49ers regained the lead on Smith's second touchdown pass. San Francisco was able to move the ball 54 yards in six plays and was aided by Williams' 24-yard return of Steve Weatherford's punt; Williams was playing the position of punt returner in place of Ted Ginn, Jr., who missed the game with an injury. Frank Gore caught a pass from Smith on the second play of the drive for a 24-yard gain to the New York 28-yard line whereupon Davis caught his second touchdown pass on the next play to give the 49ers a 14–10 lead.

After the teams traded punts on the next three possessions, the 49ers began on their own 12-yard line as the third quarter was drawing to a close. An eleven-yard run by Gore was followed by a short completion from Smith to tight end Delanie Walker for seven yards. However, Chris Canty was called for a roughing the passer penalty, which added fifteen yards to the end of the play and advanced the ball to the San Francisco 45-yard line as the fourth quarter began. Gore ran for six yards on the next play, with Anthony Dixon adding three more on the play after that. Chase Blackburn and Linval Joseph made a tackle on the third down play to stop the drive at the New York 46-yard line. Instead of going for it, the 49ers elected to take a delay of game penalty and punt the football back to the Giants.

The ensuing drive for the Giants started at their own 20-yard line, but the 49ers held them to a three and out with two Manning incompletions sandwiched around an Aldon Smith sack. Weatherford again came out for a punt, with Williams standing ready to field the ball at his own 38-yard line. The ball hit the turf at the 45-yard line and bounced back toward Williams, who chose to let the ball continue rolling down the field. Giants receiver Devin Thomas, seeing this, began sprinting toward the ball and picked it up near the 30-yard line. The officials gave the 49ers possession at the spot where Thomas had picked the ball up. Thomas, however, was insistent that Williams had touched the ball first, and ran the rest of the way into the end zone with the ball; if he was right, possession would have gone back to the Giants on a muff and a recovery, but the ball would be placed at the spot of the recovery since muffed punts, by rule, are unable to be advanced by the recovering team.

Tom Coughlin decided to take a chance and threw his red challenge flag onto the field to ask the officials to review the play. The replay showed that the ball had touched Williams' right knee at the spot where he attempted to field it, and the Giants received possession at the spot where Thomas picked the ball up, which was determined to be the 29-yard line of San Francisco. It took seven plays for New York to reach the end zone from there, with a 15-yard pass from Manning to Mario Manningham giving them the lead again.

The 49ers responded on their next possession and on the first three plays, they achieved successive first downs. The first was awarded as the result of a defensive foul, as Kenny Phillips was flagged for illegal use of hands, while the following two were earned by Smith and Kendall Hunter on running plays. Three plays later, Akers was called on to kick the game-tying field goal as the drive stalled at the New York 8-yard line. Akers converted tying the game at 17–17. The rest of the fourth quarter was uneventful as the teams traded possessions six times. The Giants punted three times while the 49ers did so twice, and regulation ended on a play where tight end Delanie Walker fumbled the football.

After a lengthy description of the current playoff overtime rules by referee Ed Hochuli, New York won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff of overtime; however, four plays later, they elected to punt the football. With the new overtime rules in place, this meant that since both teams had taken possession of the ball, the game was now sudden-death where the first team to score would win the football game. However, San Francisco could not advance the football on their possession and the 49ers elected to punt the football after three plays. The Giants started their drive from their 36-yard line and advanced near midfield on third down, but Manning was sacked by Justin Smith and Weatherford came out for his twelfth punt of the game. Once again, Williams fielded the kick. After returning the ball five yards Giants linebacker Jacquian Williams reached in and stripped the football from Williams and Thomas recovered it at the San Francisco 24-yard line. It was Williams' second official fumble and second lost fumble, and the last time the 49ers would possess the ball.

Ahmad Bradshaw carried the football on three successive plays and rushed for eight, six and four yards to the San Francisco six yard line. On the fourth snap, Manning simply took the ball to the middle of the field and kneeled, which brought up third down. Tynes was called out onto the field for what was a 26-yard field goal, but the Giants were called for a delay-of-game penalty, making it a 31-yard attempt. Tynes alleged there was a patch of dirt at the 16-yard line and felt more comfortable kicking 5 yards back. After San Francisco called timeout to try to attempt to distract Tynes, he converted the field goal successfully despite a low snap. With the victory, the Giants moved on to Indianapolis to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

As had happened in the previous four conference championship games that required overtime to decide them, the winning margin was a field goal. Tynes became the first person to kick the winning field goal in overtime twice and became the first since Garrett Hartley of the New Orleans Saints did so in the 2009 NFC Championship Game. New York became the second consecutive team to win three playoff games to reach the Super Bowl after the Packers won three road playoff games the year before. San Francisco lost its second consecutive NFC Championship Game where they served as the host team, having lost the 1997 NFC Championship Game at home to the Packers. The 49ers dropped to a win–loss record of 1–5 in NFC Championship Game appearances since their victory in 1990 over the Los Angeles Rams to advance to Super Bowl XXIV; the Giants handed the 49ers two of those losses (one of them in very similar fashion to this game 21 years earlier) and the Dallas Cowboys also defeated them twice. Meanwhile, New York won their fifth NFC Championship Game in as many tries and won their third conference championship game on the road in the process. The three road wins all came on the last play of the game (1990, 2007, and this game), while the two home wins were both by shutout (1986 and 2000).

Manning, despite being sacked six times and constantly under pressure by the 49ers, was praised for his gutsy performance. He completed 32 of 58 passes for 316 yards and two touchdowns with no turnovers in the rainy contest. Smith had 196 passing yards and two touchdowns – both to Davis – finishing 12-for-26. This was Smith's last 49ers playoff game as he was replaced by Colin Kaepernick in 2012. Bradshaw and Gore each rushed for 74 yards while Cruz led all receivers with 10 catches for 142 yards. Davis caught three passes for 112 yards and two touchdowns. Of San Francisco's six sacks, defensive end Ray McDonald had a team-high two and a half. Justin Tuck led New York with one and a half of the team's three sacks. San Francisco fumbled the football on four occasions and Williams lost the two fumbles which were the only turnovers of the game. There were twenty-two combined punts in the game, as Weatherford and Andy Lee recorded twelve and ten punts, respectively. The 49ers converted only one third down in 13 opportunities.

This was the eighth postseason meeting between the Giants and 49ers. San Francisco had won four of the prior seven meetings, including 39–38 in the 2002 NFC Wild Card playoffs.

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