By: Kylan Watson

After falling to the Washington Commanders last week, the Philadelphia Eagles faced the San Francisco 49ers to open the 2026 Wildcard Round of the playoffs. This was a heavyweight fight between these two teams that have represented the NFC in the last three super bowls. The Niners were able to win this game thanks to a great late game touchdown throw to Christian McCaffrey (15 carries for 48 yards and caught two receiving touchdowns in this game) which sealed this game for San Francisco 23-19 and ending Philly’s hopes of another super bowl appearance.

The Eagles came into this game with one of the top defenses in the league against one of the best offenses in the NFL. Early in this contest the Niners went right down the field and found Demarcus Robinson for the early score. The 49ers were able to take advantage of short and intermediate passing game against the Eagles and despite losing the turnover battle were still able to pull this game out.

Credit to the Niners with everything working against them, especially after losing George Kittle in the second quarter, they were still able to keep the Eagles from blowing this game wide open. The Eagles got two turnovers and were only able to score three-points from them and that is because the 49ers defense did not give up and did enough to let their offense get back in this contest. Kyle Shannahan and his staff had their team ready to play and the Eagles did not match their energy and that cost them late in this game.

Philly was able to put together some incredible offensive drives early in this contest Dallas Goedert scored two touchdowns and the Eagles looked like they might run away with this contest. However, their mistakes caught up to them in this game once again the offense experienced a second-half power outage, which allowed a team that was missing its best playmaker to gain confidence in a game that they should not have been in after turning the ball over twice. The Eagles were only able to score six points in the second half and against the Niners you need to score more than that.

Another reason they lost this game is because they had too many penalties (7-48 yards) which killed multiple offensive drives, again that is not something they can do in the playoffs and expect a team not to take advantage of it. Those penalties took points off the board for the offense and on defense kept that unit on the field more than they should have been. For example, on the game winning possession for the Niners a holding penalty on Reed Blankenship extended a drive for the Niners that would have ended in a field goal instead of a touchdown pass to McCaffrey.

Brock Purdy (completed 18/31 passes for 262 yards completed two touchdowns passes and threw two interceptions in the game) won this game for the Niners, and outplayed Jalen Hurts late in the game. When he needed a play to seal the game and Hurts did not when it mattered. Big-time players make plays in the postseason and Purdy was able to take his team to the next round, and now the Eagles have a lot of soul searching to do heading into a long offseason.

The first decision that needs to be made is do they retain the services of Kevin Patullo (offensive coordinator for the Eagles). Despite calling scheming up plays that were good enough to win this contest, they still only scored 6 points in the second half. The Eagles need to let him go and bring in a veteran coordinator to the team who can be creative and devise a scheme that maximizes Hurts. Or a young one from the college ranks who can create an effective and consistent offensive unit.

Additionally, Philly should also invest some draft capital into finding a replacement for Lane Johnson coming off an injury riddled season and getting more depth on the offensive line. The Eagles have one of the best front offices in the NFL and they will be back and will contend for more super bowls in the future, but this is a pivotal offseason for them where they need to hit on a new offensive coordinator, get more help on the offensive line, either re-sign Goedert or pick up another tight end in the draft or in free agency, and re-load on the defensive end. Starting tonight or tomorrow things will get interesting for the Eagles as Nick Sirianni, Howie Roseman and Jeff Laurie will have a lot of interesting decisions to make.