NFC Championship Recap: Eagles Soar To Victory Over 49ers

By Alex Benjamin

Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images

The Philadelphia Eagles are soaring back to the Super Bowl! They defeated the San Francisco 49ers 31-7 in the NFC Championship Game to secure their spot in the big dance.

The Eagles got off to a strong start with a touchdown on their opening drive. Miles Sanders scored from 6 yards out after a spectacular one-handed grab by wide receiver DeVonta Smith for a 29-yard gain on a fourth-and-3 play. (Which should have been reviewed as an incomplete pass). The Eagles' defense then stepped up, with linebacker Haason Reddick stripping the ball from 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy and injuring his elbow just six plays into San Francisco's first offensive series.

The 49ers were forced to rely on former Jet legend, Josh Johnson, who also went down with a concussion early in the third quarter. Purdy returned to the game but was clearly limited. The Eagles dominated at the end of the first half, adding two more touchdowns to make it 21-7 at halftime.

Jalen Hurts had a solid performance at quarterback for the Eagles, going 15-of-25 for 121 yards with no interceptions and a rushing touchdown. Running back Kenneth Gainwell led the Eagles in rushing with 48 yards on 14 carries, while Sanders had 42 yards on the ground and two touchdowns. Tight end Dallas Goedert had five receptions for 23 yards. Haason Reddick had a standout performance on defense with three tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a fumble recovery.

The 49ers were limited to just 164 total yards and 11 first downs, with a 2-of-8 conversion rate on third down. San Francisco never made it into the red zone and were killed by 11 penalties for 81 yards, which extended key Eagles drives.

With their dominant performance against the 49ers, the Eagles have proven that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Here are my thoughts:

I'll be completely honest. That was one of the least thrilling NFC Championships ever. 60 minutes of complete dominance. I wanted the game to be intense for four quarters in a row. It didn't feel like a game. What we expected to be an incredible game turned out to be just the Niners having every single player get hurt. Brock Purdy then Josh Johnson. However, I don’t know if any team would have beaten that Eagles team yesterday, every play they needed to make a play, their pass rushers did. The San Francisco 49ers signed their death warrant when they defeated the Dallas Cowboys last week. Philadelphia was already celebrating its trip to the Super Bowl before the game even ended.

The Eagles' weapons are amazing. In two weeks, we'll find out if the Chiefs are capable of four quarters versus Nick Sirianni, Jalen Hurts, Haason Reddick, AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith, Miles Sanders, Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, and Kenneth Gainwell.

As the game wound down, a brawl broke out between the Eagles' K'Von Wallace and the 49ers' Trent Williams, resulting in both players being ejected. However, this only seemed to add fuel to the fire for Eagles fans as they continued to celebrate their trip to the Super Bowl.

The 49ers faced a string of bad luck at the quarterback position with Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo suffering season-ending injuries and then Purdy's elbow. Is there a problem with Kyle Shanahan's playcalling getting all his QBs hurt? (As first reported by Pardon My Take). But that's just football. An unfortunate situation for Purdy, a big what if, but the Niners stuck in there for 3 quarters and did their best without a passing game. Josh Johnson even got his shot. I felt bad for Josh Johnson. He did what we probably all expected him to do. He didn’t want to be there. As a fourth-string QB, to put into the fire of the NFC championship. He went from sitting on the sideline with a jacket to being hit by Ndamukong Suh. That’s a big swing. His fumble was huge as well. Penalties also killed the Niners. Kyle Shanahan started circling the refs like a shark. Despite the setbacks, the Niners still had a successful season with a 15-5 record.

The Eagles won pretty handily, but the game changed when the 49ers couldn’t throw for essentially 3 quarters. Christan McCaffrey even played QB and threw a pass 25 yards away from any receiver. I think it's almost impossible to throw a pass that far off. The Eagles' offense didn’t look amazing but their defense was great. The D line was in the backfield all day. The Eagles played smart. Nick Siriani played his game like he did all year. They got up early, ran the ball, and took care of business. The entire game goes the way Jalen Hurts goes. His leadership is contagious for this Eagles team and it showed on Sunday.

In the end, Hurts stood on the field's stage, as his Eagles teammates passed around the NFC championship trophy and sang the Eagles fight song, “Fly Eagles Fly!”

Hurts may not be as good at singing as he is at scoring, but it was another memorable moment in a season full of them. “We get to do it because we did it better than anyone in the NFC this year,” Sirianni said.

The NFC Championship game was a thrilling and memorable event, setting the stage for what promises to be an exciting Super Bowl.