The 49ers Exposed the Eagles — and Upended the NFC Hierarchy
Pictured: Deebo Samuel. (Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
For one quarter, the Eagles looked like the kings of the NFC.
In the two hours after, the 49ers exposed the Eagles and upended the NFC hierarchy.
Philadelphia dominated the opening minutes. The Eagles took the opening kick and marched right down the field, going 67 yards in 12 plays before stalling in the red zone and settling for a field goal. After the 49ers went 3-and-out, the Eagles got the ball back and moved the ball again, going 53 yards in 12 plays and kicking another field goal to go up 6-0.
When the 49ers went 3-and-out a second time, it looked like Philadelphia was rolling to yet another victory, all but locking up the NFC 1-seed.
If you're an Eagles fan, you should probably stop reading.
San Francisco scored a touchdown on its next six possessions before finally, mercifully, kneeling out the clock to end the game. Just look at drive charts from that point forward:
- 11 plays, 85 yards, touchdown
- 10 plays, 90 yards, touchdown
- 7 plays, 75 yards, touchdown
- 5 plays, 77 yards, touchdown
- 12 plays, 75 yards, touchdown
- 2 plays, 45 yards, touchdown
Brock Purdy was outstanding, moving in the pocket, making smart reads and hitting every throw his team needed. He finished with 314 yards passing and four touchdowns on 11.6 yards per attempt and 0.73 EPA per play.
The Eagles' defense had no answer for Christian McCaffrey, George Kittle, Deebo Samuel or even Jauan Jennings. It had no answers for anyone. The 49ers ended the game at 0.53 EPA per play, ranking in the 100th percentile. Put another way: every two plays, the 49ers gained over a point of value on the scoreboard — and it felt like it.
The 49ers completely dominated the middle of the field on both sides of the ball, getting anything they wanted in the most valuable part of the field.
The Eagles only scored once more during the competitive portion of the game, and even that drive was aided by two 15-yard penalties, one via a 49ers ejection when a Philadelphia staffer got involved.
Philadelphia's defense had no chance.
The defense was so outmatched that when the Eagles cut the lead to 35-19 with six minutes left, Philadelphia didn't even pretend it had any chance at stopping San Francisco. The Eagles just went straight to an onside kick, failed to recover, and gave up another touchdown two plays later.
This was barely even a football game.
It's like the 49ers invented an entirely new sport called murderball, then forced the Eagles to play the game out for three hours in front of an entire arena of horrified Philadelphia fans.
The final score was San Francisco 42, Philadelphia 19, but the game was nowhere near that close. It was less a fair fight and more of a changing of the guard.
The 49ers served notice that the NFC road to the Super Bowl runs through San Francisco — regardless of where that path actually takes place.
So was Sunday a reckoning of the Eagles or a coronation of the 49ers? Maybe a little bit of both.
Philadelphia's only real success came through its pair of star receivers. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith combined for 17 catches and 210 yards, repeatedly beating San Francisco's corners when Jalen Hurts had enough time to throw. That's something for the Eagles to come back to if they get a rematch in January.
Otherwise, the Eagles were miserable on both sides of the ball.
The defense sort of speaks for itself. The offense was poor on early downs, like it has been all season. Philadelphia ranks outside the top 20 in DVOA on first downs both offensively and defensively for the entire season. The Eagles were off script all game and never really got comfortable.
Hurts — still, somehow the MVP favorite — threw the ball 45 times with low efficiency at just 6.6 YPA. He also fumbled once and was sacked three times. He got hit often and briefly left the game for a concussion check, then weirdly kept playing deep into a game that was long over.
Alarmingly, Philadelphia's vaunted rushing attack was nowhere to be found. The Eagles ran just 18 times for 46 yards, a mere 2.6 yards per carry. The running backs ran only nine times for 20 yards.
Philadelphia recorded an awful 15% Success Rate on 13 called run plays. I'll do the math for you: that's 2-of-13. The Philadelphia Eagles had two successful run plays in an entire game of football. TWO. And one of those was a Tush Push.
If you've been paying attention, none of this should have been too surprising.
The Eagles' run game has been mostly average or good, rarely great. Philadelphia can't run to the right, and the rushing attack has gotten worse as the season has progressed. The pass defense has been a problem all year, and the defense has ranked bottom 10 by DVOA over the past five games — and that was before this drubbing.
All season, Philadelphia has been getting on by the skin of its teeth, going 7-1 in one-score games, five of those against teams now .500 or worse. Many interpreted those close victories as grit and a winning edge, but the reality is that repeatedly playing subpar teams basically even is a bad, not good.
On Thursday, the Cowboys looked like the Eagles. They played down to their opponent, a .500 team, but did just enough to survive and advance with a close win.
On Sunday, the Eagles looked like the Cowboys. They played a big game against the 49ers and got absolutely eviscerated. Dallas lost its San Francisco game 42-10 on the road. Philadelphia lost 42-19 at home.
Imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.
So what about those 49ers?
The NFC has been considered a three-team race for much of the season, and the three teams have all played each other once. The 49ers won their two games by a combined score of 84-29. Seems good.
Unlike Philadelphia, San Francisco has only one win this season by one score, and even that was a lie. The 49ers were up 10 and lost by "one score" when the Rams kicked a meaningful-to-some field goal as the clock expired.
San Francisco's other wins this year: 23, 18, 19, 32, 31, 13, 18 and 23 points.
That's now how much the 49ers scored, by the way. That's how much they won by.
And sure, there was a three-game losing streak in there. Two of those came by one score, and all three came when the offense was compromised. Samuel missed all three games, stud LT Trent Williams missed two, and Purdy may have been playing with some sort of head injury for two of those games.
That's it. Those are the only blemishes upon an otherwise pristine, all-time 49ers season.
But go back a little further.
The last time these teams played was San Francisco's final game last season, but that was barely a football game. Purdy was injured on San Francisco's sixth play and the 49ers literally didn't have a quarterback on the roster who could throw a pass. It was less of a loss, more of a forfeit.
The 49ers had won 12 straight games before that. The winning margins: 17, 6, 28, 13, 16, 28, 8, 17, 3, 25, 18 and 7. The first game in that winning streak was McCaffrey's first full game with the 49ers, and Purdy took over at quarterback soon after.
So, let's do a little math.
Since McCaffrey joined the team, the 49ers have fielded a healthy offense in 21 games.
They're 21-0 in those games with a +363 point differential, winning by an average of 17.3 PPG. Only five of those 21 wins came by fewer than 13 points, and two of those five were fake close.
Does that make McCaffrey the MVP? Does it make Purdy the MVP?
Honestly, who cares?
Football is about winning football games, and with each passing week it's becoming more and more apparent that McCaffrey, Purdy, Deebo, Kittle, Brandon Aiyuk — I haven't even mentioned one of the five most efficient receivers in football — Williams, reigning DPOY Nick Bosa, Fred Warner, Chase Young, Javon Hargrave — I mean, come on, this list of stars is unbelievable!! — and everyone else on the 49ers make up an unbelievable, unstoppable, unfathomable football winning machine.
Heading into the weekend, I wondered if the 49ers might be a juggernaut hiding in plain sight.
Here's the scariest part for the rest of the NFL:
The 49ers aren't hiding anymore.
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