49ERS-PACKERS WILD CARD GAME Fear factor dips below zero

The 49ers are the first 12-4 team in NFL history to have to open the playoffs on the road -- in this case frigid Lambeau Field.
By TOM WILLIAMS
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
Bring on the cold! Let the snow blow!
San Francisco coach Steve Mariucci, a native of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, doesn't care what the Wisconsin weather conditions will be Sunday at 12:30 p.m. when the surprising 49ers once again go up against the Green Bay Packers in a playoff game, this time at historic Lambeau Field, where San Francisco hasn't won since 1990.
"Whatever it's going to be -- snow, rain, wind, cold -- will be perfect," said Mariucci speaking by telephone from the 49ers headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif.
"We're ready for anything Old Man Winter throws at us," Mariucci said. "We're not dwelling on the conditions -- we're not going to allow it to be an issue."
The early forecast is calling for temperatures in the mid-20s, with a chance of snow flurries.
With three shutouts and the second-best rushing attack in the NFL, Mariucci said the 49ers have the capability to win on a sloppy field even if it's Lambeau Field where the Packers have never lost in the playoffs.
"In general, in bad weather games, if you play good defense and run the football [well], you've got a chance to win," Mariucci said. "We've been able to do both well this season.
"Plus, we have shown we can throw the ball," said Mariucci, the coach of the first 12-4 team to have open the NFL playoffs on the road.
Have a chance: "I think we have a heckuva of a chance even though we know they've never lost at home," Mariucci said. "We're aware of Brett Favre's record in cold-weather games [29-0 in games played in 34 degrees or colder at Lambeau Field].
"But our team has accomplished things this year that the 49ers have never done before," Mariucci said.
"We had three shutouts defensively for the first time," Mariucci said. "And we've never had a quarterback throw 30 touchdown passes in back-to-back seasons."
Pro Bowl quarterback Jeff Garcia tossed four touchdown passes in Sunday's 38-0 triumph over the New Orleans Saints. That gave him 30 for the season after throwing 31 in 2000, something neither Joe Montana nor Steve Young achieved in their glorious careers in San Francisco.
The 49ers will be fielding a unit with just 12 players with postseason experience, one of them being running back Garrison Hearst who has recovered from a severely broken ankle suffered in the Niners' last playoff game.
"Our tailback comes back from so many surgeries that he's not even expected to be able to walk straight let alone make the Pro Bowl," Mariucci. "So this game is just one more giant hurdle for our young team to overcome."
Fifth meeting: Sunday's game (FOX Channel 17/62) is the fifth postseason matchup for these two teams in the past seven seasons.
The Packers captured the first two games in George Seifert's final seasons as 49ers coach.
Mariucci, who took over five seasons ago, has a 1-1 playoff mark against the Packers and 2-2 record overall. (His team defeated the Minnesota Vikings after the 1997 season and lost to the Atlanta Falcons a year later.
In January 1998, the Packers won the NFC Championship Game at San Francisco, 23-10, then went on to lose to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. A year later, the 49ers ended the Packers' two-year Super Bowl run with a 30-27 wild-card victory at 3Com Park when quarterback Steve Young hit wide receiver Terrell Owens with a last-second touchdown pass.
Ownership change: A salary cap purge followed that season, when team ownership was transferred from Eddie DeBartolo Jr. to his sister, Denise DeBartolo York, and her husband, John York of Canfield.
The release of so-many playoff-tested veterans led to 4-12 and 6-10 seasons, which is why no one expected San Francisco to rebound so soon for a playoff berth.
Mariucci declined to pick a favorite memory of Lambeau Field.
"The memory I cherish is when we beat them here in 1998 in one of the greatest playoff games of all time," Mariucci said.