Green Bay Packers running back DuJuan Harris (26) gets tackled by Minnesota Vikings outside linebacker Erin Henderson (50) during the second half of an NFL wild card playoff football game Saturday, Jan. 5, 2013, in Green Bay, Wis.

GREEN BAY — DuJuan Harris wasn't much of a car salesman. Didn't sell a single one, in fact, in the week he was working at a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealership in Jacksonville, Fla.

"I came close a few times," he said. "I don't want to say I was nervous, but people would ask me about the cars and I didn't know much about it. I was just like, 'Man, I'm not going to sell the cars.'"

That's OK. As the Green Bay Packers have discovered — and the rest of the NFL is quickly learning — the pint-sized running back is far better suited for a job in the NFL.

Elevated from the practice squad Dec. 1, Harris' speed, elusiveness and surprising power have helped give the Packers the consistent run game they've been trying to find all season. And after catching a team-high five passes Saturday night, Harris also gives Aaron Rodgers yet another option in what was already the NFC's deepest receiving game.

The Packers (12-5) play at San Francisco (11-4-1) on Saturday in an NFC divisional game.

"He's kind of a Transformer," Rodgers said last week. "There's more than meets the eye with DuJuan. He's a very tough guy. He's got great athleticism, agility; he makes some great jump cuts. ... He's done some nice things for us.

"You have to give him a lot of credit," Rodgers added. "He's learned the offense the last few weeks and studied, obviously, and the package for him is just going to continue to grow."

Signed by Jacksonville last season as an undrafted free agent out of Troy, Harris spent most of 2011 on the Jaguars' practice squad. He played his way onto the active roster by the end of the season, running for 42 yards on nine carries in Jacksonville's last five games. After the Jaguars cut Harris at the end of training camp, he was picked up by Pittsburgh.

But he was with the Steelers only four days before being cut again, and he went back to Jacksonville to wait for his next opportunity.

"I was just working out, staying in shape and pretty much just chilling," Harris said.

As the weeks passed and his phone stayed noticeably silent, Harris decided he needed to do something else. A friend had connections at a Mercedes-Benz dealership, and got Harris an interview.

It was clear immediately that wasn't going to be a good fit.

"They asked me if I would consider cutting my hair," said Harris, whose dreadlocks reach all the way to the middle of his back. "I was like, 'No, I know my career in football is not done.'"

Another friend put him in touch with the Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge dealership, which has hired a few other NFL players. When they told Harris they needed him to take a drug test, he laughed.

"I was like, 'Really, I have to go take a (urine) test? I'm clean. I don't smoke or none of that. I'm clean. I've got to be clean to do workouts for the NFL,'" Harris said. "But to get a job in the real world, you have to do all of that other stuff. So, I did it."

He put on a shirt and tie every day, too.

"I was never used to coming to work in a shirt and tie unless it's for game day," he said. "I enjoyed it."

After a week, though, Harris got a call from the Packers. He was signed to the practice squad Oct. 24.

"I felt like it was a test of my faith and I kept faith. When I got signed, I knew it was time to stay," he said. "I had to come in and get to work and do whatever I had to stay."

By the end of his first week in Green Bay, the Packers knew they had a keeper.

Though Harris is only 5-foot-8, he packs the power of a lineman. Listed at 208 pounds, his arms are massive and his legs even bigger. Combine that with his speed and elusiveness, and the Packers' defensive players found themselves clutching air any time they tried to bring Harris down.

"He was tough to tackle in open space, one on one," said Alex Van Pelt, Green Bay's running backs coach. "After about the first two or three practices, you start to hear little mumblings in the back, 'Oh, this guy's got a little something to him.' It was our job to get him up to speed within the system to get him out there on the field."

And fast, considering the struggles the Packers have had on the ground.

With Rodgers at quarterback and a laundry list of targets, Green Bay is assured of having one of the NFL's most potent passing games. But teams need balance, and the Packers didn't have anything close to it the first half of the season. They cracked the 100-yard rushing mark just three times in the first eight games, and were averaging about 3.7 yards per carry. They had two touchdowns — count 'em, two — on the ground through the first 11 games.

Since Dec. 2, however, the Packers are averaging 112 yards rushing per game. They've scored nine touchdowns on the ground, including two in Saturday's wild-card victory over Minnesota.

"(Opponents) have a little bit to do with it, DuJuan Harris has something to do with it," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said of the improvement. "I'm excited about what he's given us."

Though Harris is only rushing for about 40 yards per game, he's averaging 4 yards a carry. That's not Adrian Peterson-like production, but it's enough to force defenses to not load up in the secondary.

He's also been a brute in pass protection, and has sure enough hands that Rodgers didn't hesitate to go to him.

"He's doing a good job and we're pretty extensive with what we ask our backs to do in pass protection," McCarthy said. "I'm very pleased and impressed with his growth when his opportunity came so late in the year and what he's been able to do over the last three to four weeks."

While Harris appreciates the faith the Packers have in him, he doesn't feel as if he's made it. Not after where he was only a few months ago.

49ers more prepared for playoffs this time

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Andy Lee's nerves came on a full day before San Francisco's playoff opener a year ago, not just leading up to his first punt as is typically the case each game. Tight end Vernon Davis was surprised at his butterflies stepping onto the NFL's big stage for the first time, too.

Last January, most of the 49ers had never been part of a playoff game and were suiting up for a rookie NFL coach. So much was made of the playoff inexperience at the time. Now, it's just the opposite.

These days, Jim Harbaugh's team is a playoff-tested bunch of veterans determined to make this a special postseason run that goes one step further — to the Super Bowl.

The NFC West champion Niners (11-4-1) can move closer to that goal when they host the Green Bay Packers in the divisional playoffs on Saturday night in a rematch of the season opener won 30-22 by San Francisco in September at Lambeau Field.

"A lot of guys don't know what it's like until they get out there," Davis said. "For me, last year was kind of like, 'Wow!' The energy, the atmosphere was on a whole other level. If you don't know, you might want to ask somebody so you won't be too surprised like I was. I was very surprised at the stage. I had an idea, but until I got out there, I was like, 'Wow.' I was nervous, more so than usual."

Not that it ever showed.

In a 36-32 upset of Drew Brees and the favored New Orleans Saints, Davis made a leaping 14-yard touchdown catch under pressure on a perfectly thrown ball from Alex Smith with 9 seconds remaining in the NFC divisional playoffs. Davis had another spectacular outing in the NFC championship game, catching touchdown passes of 73 and 28 yards in the Niners' 20-17 overtime loss to the eventual Super Bowl champion New York Giants.

If only Davis could do it again after a quiet year in which defenses keyed in on him and made others in a revamped receiving corps beat them.

"There are definitely more of our players who have been through the playoffs and can personally share with the first- or second-year players who haven't been through the playoffs what that experience was like for them," Harbaugh said. "They can personalize it from conversation to conversation. I hope our young guys are taking advantage of that."

So much was different about this season. San Francisco never ran off with the NFC West this time, yet still captured a consecutive division crown. There were no long winning streaks — and the Niners even had a frustrating home tie mixed in — and fewer victories than in Harbaugh's Coach of the Year debut season. Yet, here they are again as the NFC's No. 2 seed and fresh off a bye week to rest and prepare.

"We know what to expect going forward," left tackle Joe Staley said. "I think last year a lot of the players had to draw from the older veterans. We all have playoff experience on this team. We know what kind of atmosphere it's going to be."

Harbaugh, his coaches and the players have been fueled day in and day out ever since that loss to the Giants last year to get this franchise back to the Super Bowl at last. The Niners haven't been since winning a championship after the 1994 season with Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young leading the way.

"The football gods have a different outcome for that last game than we did," Harbaugh said. "Now is a new team, a team I feel very good going into the playoffs with and understands the challenge and the task that's up against us this time around."

Lee certainly expects to be less anxious, without the worries of added pressure and expectations now that he has been through the playoffs once.

"I would say last year I didn't know what to expect," Lee said. "It was a little nerve-racking, a little more than I thought it would be. This year, it's what we planned on, what it's supposed to be, just another game — a big game at that — but the best way we can approach it is it's just another game. There's a little bit more of that feeling in it than building it up as much and getting nervous about it.

"It's a little easier to go into it with a good, clean mind," Lee said. "I felt a little nervous the day before the game. I never really do that. But I don't feel that will be part of it this year."

Cornerback Tarell Brown knows the 49ers learned plenty during last season's playoff near miss, even some simple messages they will take into this weekend's game.

After beating Aaron Rodgers and Green Bay in Week 1, plenty has changed for both teams as they prepare to meet again.

"You've got to treat it like a normal game — we understand that. It's no pressure on us," Brown said. "We have another opportunity to show the world we're one of the best teams in the league. We love playing these big games."

Notes: Harbaugh said defensive lineman Justin Smith is expected back after he partially tore his left triceps. "We look very much forward to having him back in the lineup," Harbaugh said. ... Harbaugh's father, Jack, told the former NFL quarterback last week that he had been the victim of Ray Lewis' first career sack. "My legend grows ... Ray Lewis' first sack," Jim Harbaugh quipped. No, he doesn't recall the hit. ... Playoff tickets for Saturday sold out in less than 3 minutes Monday.

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