SANTA CLARA, Calif.—If this postseason hasn't been torturous enough for the New York Jets already, this weekend could put them over the edge.

For starters, the two Sunday games will, of course, decide who goes to the Super Bowl—a destination coach Rex Ryan wrongly predicted his club would reach this year.

In his first season, coach Jim Harbaugh (left) has Alex Smith and the 49ers in the conference-title game—just like Rex Ryan did with the Jets. Associated Press

The first conference-title game pits Baltimore, a team Ryan used to coach with, against the Patriots, the AFC East divisional rival the Jets most loathe. The second features the Giants, who basically knocked the Jets out of playoff contention and have seized the city's undivided attention.

But if there's a team that should be driving the Jets insane, it's the 49ers. That's because San Francisco, in a number of ways, looks just like what the Jets used to be: a tight-knit club that thrived on its defense and came up just short in its bid to reach the Super Bowl following the 2009 season.

Both that Jet team and this San Francisco one entered the season coming off of disappointing years that led to coaching changes. San Francisco ousted Mike Singletary this past offseason; the Jets fired Eric Mangini after the 2008 season—moves that lowered expectations the following year.

"There definitely weren't as many [reporters] in the locker room earlier this year," said 49ers quarterback Alex Smith. "I don't know how many wins we were expected to have, but I know it probably wasn't that many."

The new hires, both of whom were young and rubbed some the wrong way in the early going, paid dividends. Ryan quickly developed a rapport with his players, who often said they'd run through a wall for the coach. Likewise, Jim Harbaugh has given San Francisco a new sense of confidence.

"I think it all has to do with Jim. He set the tempo early on and convinced us to buy in from day one," said Blake Costanzo, one of San Francisco's key special-teams players. "We feel like we can go in there and not only play with anybody, but beat anybody."

That was proven Sunday. The 49ers, buoyed by Smith having the game of his life, won a wild divisional-playoff game over New Orleans in the kind of shootout that should've favored the high-scoring Saints.

By playing his best in the playoffs, the former No. 1 overall pick resembled Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez—a young quarterback who's won four postseason games, but has been ripped by his fan base for lackluster regular-season play.

Because Smith is still limited as a passer, the 49ers found themselves running the ball far more than other teams in what was largely seen as a pass-happy league in 2011. They had the third-most carries in the NFL and threw just 47% of the time. (The Jets threw just 44% of the time in 2009.)

"We're a run-the-ball, smack-you-in-the-mouth kind of team, and I don't think you have many teams like that anymore," said Pro Bowl tackle Joe Staley.

Asked this week to describe his club in one word, Harbaugh said, "I'll use six: the team, the team, the team." The response was a reference to the famous mantra of Bo Schembechler, who coached Harbaugh when he was a star quarterback in the 1980s at Michigan.

The 49ers' grind-it-out style has made for some ugly play.Like the Jets of two seasons ago, San Francisco was terrible inside the red zone this season, scoring touchdowns just over 40% of the time. This flaw caused the 49ers to become incredibly reliant on field goals.

"[Kicker] David Akers really could be our most valuable player this year," Harbaugh said with a straight face and completely serious tone. The high praise might be warranted, though: Akers broke an NFL record with 44 field goals this season.

Of all the comparisons that can be made between the 2009 Jets and this year's 49ers, the greatest similarity is their defensive dominance. Regardless of how they struggled to score, both kept themselves in games by giving their offenses the ball back.

The Jets led the league in 2009 in points allowed per game (14.8). The 49ers this season finished with the league's second-best scoring defense (14.3).

The 49ers' run defense has been so stifling that Vic Fangio, the team's defensive coordinator, fielded a question this week about whether teams would simply be better off throwing the ball every down against them. While the inquiry seemed odd, the 49ers did go the first 14 games of the year without allowing a rushing touchdown, the NFL's longest such streak to start a season.

Granted, there is one further similarity between these 49ers and the 2009 Jets which could haunt San Francisco: Like the Jets, who failed to hold a halftime lead in the AFC title game against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, the 49ers have less experience than their title-game opponent.

"But what's experience going to do?" said San Francisco's Carlos Rogers, a Pro Bowl cornerback. "The Saints had more experience, and they're at home now. The Packers just won the Super Bowl, and they're at home now.

"We've just got to play and find a way to take that final step."

Write to Chris Herring at