The Philadelphia Eagles’ quest to repeat as Super Bowl champions is shifting from the regular season to the playoffs with the Birds hosting the San Francisco 49ers in a Wild Card game at Lincoln Financial Field. The Eagles are entering this matchup as 5.5-point home favorites despite the fact that they’re missing Lane Johnson, who […]
The Philadelphia Eagles’ quest to repeat as Super Bowl champions is shifting from the regular season to the playoffs with the Birds hosting the San Francisco 49ers in a Wild Card game at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles are entering this matchup as 5.5-point home favorites despite the fact that they’re missing Lane Johnson, who is inactive after reportedly suffering a setback. Even with Johnson out, the Eagles should be expected to take advantage of a Niners defense that’s dealing with a lot of their own injury issues. Vic Fangio’s defense must rise to the challenge of stopping a 49ers offense that was looking pretty good prior to a Week 18 loss.
If the Eagles win this game, they’ll advance to the Divisional Round and play the Bears in Chicago. If the Eagles lose, well, their season is over.
Follow along here for live score updates, highlights, injury news, analysis, and more before this article ultimately turns into our game recap. The best place to actually discuss the game as it happens is still in our open threads for each quarter, which you can find on our home page.
FIRST QUARTER
- The Eagles won the coin toss and elected to defer. The 49ers took over at their own 24-yard line. Brock Purdy’s first pass attempt went for a 58-yard Demarcus Robinson catch-and-run with Quinyon Mitchell trailing that quieted the Philly crowd. The 49ers moved to 1st-and-goal at the 5-yard line. Two plays later, Purdy hit Robinson again with Mitchell trailing in the end zone for a touchdown. Rough series for Q, who was just named first-team All-Pro. Five plays, 74 yards, touchdown. First thought: Uh, what the hell, defense? Second thought: Not the first time we’ve seen the opposition have success on a first drive before Vic Fangio’s group tightened up after that. EAGLES 0, 49ers 7.
- The Eagles took over at their own 37-yard line. The Eagles went with Saquon Barkley run for two yards and then a second for 29 yards into plus territory. Fred Johnson got banged up to force Matt Pryor into the game but just for one snap. The Eagles moved into the red zone with a Jalen Hurts completion to A.J. Brown. Facing 3rd-and-3, a Barkley carry picked up a first down at the 7-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-goal at the 1-yard line, the Eagles went with a handoff to Dallas Goedert (!) for the touchdown. Awesome opening drive for the offense to answer the 49ers’ score by going 63 yards in 10 plays for the score. But then Jake Elliott missed the extra point in windy conditions. EAGLES 6, 49ers 7.
- The 49eres took over at their own 26-yard line. Mitchell bounced back from his very bad first drive with a pass breakup. Facing 3rd-and-6, Purdy’s pass was completed short of the sticks. Three-and-out.
- The Eagles took over at their own 32-yard line after a mere 35-yard punt. Facing 3rd-and-7 after two Barkley runs, Hurts hit Darius Cooper (!) over the middle for a first down. Facing 3rd-and-2, a Barkley run resulted in no gain. Facing 4th-and-2, Nick Sirianni kept the offense on the field and Hurts’ pass for DeVonta Smith was broken up with the 49ers’ cornerback jumping the route. Nearly picked off. Liked the decision to go for it. Would’ve preferred trying to sneak twice starting on 3rd-and-2. Also looked like Hurts made the wrong read to hand off to Barkley instead of keeping on third down.
- The 49ers took over at their own 48-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-9 after Cooper DeJean broke up a pass, Purdy took off running but was forced out of bounds by a hustling Moro Ojomo for just two yards. Second straight three-and-out for the 49ers offense.
- The Eagles took at their own 6-yard line after Britain Covey let a punt take a 49ers bounce to pin the Eagles back. Hurts completed a pass to Brown for seven yards to end the first quarter. Facing 3rd-and-10 after picking up two first downs, Jahan Dotson false started. Facing 3rd-and-15, Hurts hit DeVonta just short of the marker. Facing 4th-and-1 from their own 44-yard line, Sirianni kept the offense and went Tush Push for the first down! Love the aggression there. The Eagles moved into 49ers territory with a fake screen right and Hurts looking back left to get the ball to Barkley for 20 yards. Really nice design! The Eagles then started to feed Tank Bigsby (the team clearly saw my tweet) and he picked up 20 yards on three straight carries. Facing 3rd-and-5 at the 12-yard line, the Eagles went with a Barkley run to set up fourth down. Facing 4th-and-2, Hurts hit Dallas Goedert for a touchdown! But the score was called back for Cam Jurgens illegally being downfield … but then the refs announced no penalty. Jurgens was actively engaged with the defender and thus not illegally downfield. Legitimately excellent drive. Elliott barely made the extra point. EAGLES 13, 49ERS 7.
- The 49ers took over at their own 23-yard line. George Kittle got carted off the field after a short reception. Purdy hit Jauan Jennings over the middle for another explosive play, this one for 45 yards with Cooper DeJean trailing (first Q and now Coop?!). Facing 3rd-and-1, Jordan Davis tackled Christian McCaffrey for a loss. Facing 4th-and-2, Kyle Shanahan kept the offense on the field … but took the 49ers’ second timeout. Facing 4th-and-2 for real, the 49ers quickly put their field goal unit on the team and Eddy Piniero made a 36-yard field goal in the wind. The Eagles will gladly live with the 49ers taking three in that spot. EAGLES 13, 49ERS 10.
SECOND QUARTER
- The
THIRD QUARTER
- Updates to come …
FOURTH QUARTER
- Updates to come …
EAGLES LINEUP NOTES
- Michael Carter II was in at safety ahead of Marcus Epps on the Eagles’ second defensive drive.
EAGLES INJURY NEWS
- Adoree’ Jackson briefly visited the medical tent after the 49ers’ first drive.
- Fred Johnson got banged up and missed a snap on the Eagles’ first drive. Matt Pryor filled in at right tackle for that snap.
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