The 49ers need to answer some questions about where they stood in relation to the Philadelphia Eagles. They emphatically showed they belong atop the NFC with a 42-19 thumping of the No. 1 seed Eagles.
Here are eight takeaways from San Francisco’s victory:
Revenge SZN
The 49ers talked a lot this offseason about how the NFC championship game would’ve gone had QB Brock Purdy stayed healthy. They were vindicated with their 23-point throttling of Philadelphia. It’s clear the 49ers benefitted from the extra time off, but they played with a ton of urgency from the first quarter on and imposed their will on an excellent team. San Francisco isn’t the top team in the NFC standings, but they made a strong case to be the NFL’s best team.
Running the NFC
The 49ers have put it on a pair of NFC contenders. Philadelphia and Dallas both have arguments to be in the conversation as an NFC favorite, and San Francisco has beaten both by a score of 84-29. They put 42 on the Cowboys as well in a 42-10 Week 5 win. Teams can’t just get penciled into the Super Bowl and there’s a ton of football left, but after 13 weeks it’s hard not to put the 49ers at the top of the list of the NFL’s best teams given how badly they’ve demolished the other top teams in their conference.
The Deebo game
Deebo Samuel was at the forefront of the offseason trash talk from the 49ers, and he backed it up in a big way Sunday. He hauled in four catches for 116 yards and two long touchdowns on short throws. Then he ran it three times for 22 yards and a touchdown. If a player is going to talk smack, backing it up is essential, and Samuel did so in a big way Sunday afternoon.
Slow start
Perhaps the most impressive part of the 49ers’ win was the punch they took in the opening quarter. In the first 15 minutes the Eagles scored twice to take a 6-0 lead and held San Francisco to negative-six yards on six plays. The 49ers bounced back and held Philadelphia to 13 points the rest of the way and racked up 462 yards with 42 points. It was a beatdown over the final 45 minutes. Ideally they would’ve started faster, but bouncing back like that in a tough environment against a great team is extremely impressive.
MVPurdy?
Purdy relied heavily on yards after the catch on his way to 314 passing yards, but he made a couple of big-time throws and finished 19-of-27 for 314 yards and four touchdown passes. It wasn’t his best game, but it was a really good outing on the road against a good team after a scattered first quarter where he didn’t complete any of his four throws. He also did this in the house of the MVP favorite, Jalen Hurts. Purdy may not be the favorite, but it’s becoming really hard to not put him in the conversation.
Secondary strong
The 49ers attacked the Eagles offense by rushing four and dropping seven in coverage with regularity. That caused Hurts to spend a lot of time dancing in the pocket, scrambling and trying to find receivers down the field. He finished 26-of-45 for 298 yards and one touchdown pass. That was in large part because of a really good game from the 49ers secondary where they didn’t allow a ton of easy completions and never let the Eagles hit the deep shot that could’ve turned the tide of Sunday’s game.
Run defense dominant
Philadelphia is a good running team, but the 49ers held them to just 46 yards on 18 carries with a long run of seven yards which came on a scramble by Hurts. They managed two first downs on the ground, both of which came on tush pushes and one of which was a TD run on a second down. They had zero third-down conversions on the ground with QB Marcus Mariota’s fourth-down tush push marking the only conversion on the ground.
Shoutout to Kalia Davis
Davis, a second-year defensive lineman, has been a healthy scratch all season. With Arik Armstead battling a foot injury, Davis was active Sunday for the first time in his NFL career. In his debut he posted a sack of Hurts in the fourth quarter. That’s a neat thing. Shoutout to Davis.
