By: Kylan Watson

The San Francisco 49ers travelled to Philadelphia to face off with the Eagles in an NFC Championship rematch and a possible preview of the 2024 NFC Championship as well. The Niners were able to back up all of their trash talk as they were able to score on the Eagles six straight times and beat them 42-19.

The Eagles started the game off hot stopping the 49ers offense two straight times. That would lead to two straight field goals for the Eagles offense though as the 49ers defense were able to stop them from scoring in the red zone. Not taking advantage of their red zone opportunities has been a weakness for the Eagles offense this season. Philly will have to find a way to get their red zone offense going again because it was a difference maker in this game as San Francisco took full advantage of their red zone opportunities which resulted in a Brandon Aiyuk touchdown reception, and a Christian McCaffrey touchdown run. That was all they needed to get going as after that they scored six unanswered touchdown drives which hasn’t been done since 1995 when Steve Young and Jerry Rice were playing for them.

On what happened in tonight’s game, “We didn’t play to the standard and we lost. We preach trying to score in the red zone … today we weren’t able to, it always helps scoring touchdowns. We didn’t do that enough,” said Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Philly was bullied by the Niners after the first quarter when Brock Purdy was able to find Aiyuk for a first down on a third-and-14-yards conversion for a first down. Once that happened it was lights out for the Eagles defense who could not get off the field. The Niners really did not have to punt the ball after the first quarter because they were able to complete six straight scoring drives and it did not matter what the Eagles defensive scheme was the drives ended in touchdowns. Three of those touchdowns were scored by Deebo Samuels who stood on business and all his trash talk today as he made the Eagles defensive unit look like trash with the way he was finding the end zone tonight.  This was a big win for the Niners who got the statement victory tonight and exorcized the demons of last year’s NFC Title game.

The Eagles are now in a position they haven’t been in since the loss to the New York Jets a few weeks ago. They have some soul searching to do, especially on the defensive side they have to figure out a way to unlock their pass rush and shut down the middle of the field. That was their weakness today. The Niners just took full advantage of their weakness at linebacker and McCaffrey feasted on the fact that they do not have a cover linebacker available on the roster right now. Philly is a team that wants to put pressure on the opposing quarterback and force them into mistakes but with the middle of the field being such a weakness maybe they need to find some cover linebackers to really shore up that part of their defense. Additionally, Sean Desai has to blitz more, Brock Purdy carved his defensive unit up like a Christmas ham.  That would not happen if he either sent more blitzers at him or played more dime on defense to get more favorable coverage. Either way with a matchup against the Dallas Cowboys looming next Sunday night the Eagles need their defense to get back to dominant form if they want to wrap up the one seed and get back to the super bowl. Philly got whooped tonight but what will define the rest of their season and the post season will be the response for the next five weeks of the season and that starts with beating the Cowboys next week.

On what is next for the team after this loss, “The good thing about the regular season is you take a loss, but we get a chance to line up and play another good team next week,” said Eagles Defensive Tackle Fletcher Cox.