In their first two drives against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, the San Francisco 49ers gained a total of minus-6 yards on two three-and-outs. It was the worst blip of the team’s time under Kyle Shanahan, who’s been San Francisco’s head coach since 2017.
Then, on their next six drives, the 49ers scored six straight touchdowns, pummeling the Eagles, 42-19, in what was supposed to be the matchup of the regular season, and turned out to be yet another Shanahan master class.
Clearly, the Eagles and defensive coordinator Sean Desai wanted to take away San Francisco’s passing game between the seams. And in the end, Shanahan had no problem with that. While Philly was defending the spine of the field, the 49ers simply went nuts either to the perimeter, or with concepts that took Desai’s defense out of their elements.
“Outside those first two drives, it’s like that’s the Niner football that we know,” Sa Francisco quarterback Brock Purdy said after the game. “That’s the offense that we know. Everyone’s doing their part, everything’s clicking obviously, some great play calls, and then everyone just makes plays and does it the right way. We protect the ball, defense does their job, that felt good. And that’s what we’re always trying to do. That’s the standard that we know and that’s the standard that we’ve set over the years. That’s what we expect out of ourselves.”
And here’s how it looked on the field.
Brock Purdy took everything the Eagles gave him.
Purdy’s passing chart was clear evidence of that. The man who came into Week 13 with the third-most completions of 20 or more air yards (24, behind only Dak Prescott and C.J. Stroud) didn’t throw a single pass of more than 16 air yards, and all but two of his completions were outside the hashes.
This 25-yard pass to George Kittle with 3:23 left in the first half was perhaps the ultimate example of how Shanahan can take your defensive preferences, turn them back on you, and blow you up with them. The concept was double post (a staple of the Shanahan offense), and the Eagles were in Cover-3 nickel.
With Kittle aligned to the left side of the formation, and Christian McCaffrey as the backside receiver in a tight formation, McCaffrey was the center of attention — he had safety Reed Blankenship and linebackers Nicholas Morrow and Christian Elliss giving him a box-and-one. Problem was, when Elliss committed to McCaffrey, and when receiver Brandon Aiyuk took cornerback Darius Slay out of the picture with his front-side vertical route, Kittle was more wide open than he should ever be.
Purdy’s completion to Brandon Aiyuk (the best receiver in the NFL you’re not talking about enough) on third-and-7 with 5:27 left in the third quarter was another example of how he has become much more than just another Shanahan system guy. Purdy had to get the ball out of the way of cornerback Darius Slay with touch and timing, and he did just that. The way Aiyuk cut his route was also just about perfect. By then, the Eagles were defending the margins more specifically, and it didn’t matter.
Deebo Samuel was the ultimate YAC weapon.
As for Deebo Samuel, who caught four passes on four targets for 116 yards and two touchdowns, all but ONE of those yards came after the catch. In total, the Eagles allowed 212 yards after the catch in this game.
Deebo Samuel gained a career-high +88 YAC over expected in Week 13, the 5th-most YACOE in a game since 2018.
Samuel has now gained the 2nd-most YACOE (+174) this season and the most YACOE (+949) since entering the NFL in 2019.#SFvsPHI | #FTTB pic.twitter.com/LQWdGHjscj
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) December 4, 2023
Samuel’s two touchdowns were statements as to what this offense can do to you after the catch, and they were two big examples of the 49ers winning the physical battle on that side of the ball. Interestingly enough, because of Purdy’s increasing efficiency and explosiveness with the deep ball, YAC hadn’t been a primary construct of this passing game. Through Week 12, the 49ers ranked 11th in yards after catch with 1,390, and seventh in yards after contact with 529.
That all changed in this game, and Samuel was the key. His first touchdown came with 4:04 left in the third quarter. The idea here was to get Samuel open underneath on the short crosser, with George Kittle and receiver Ronnie Bell clearing Philly’s Cover-3 out up top. Samuel got the ball, linebacker Nicholas Morrow tried to tackle him, and it was off to the races for a 48-yard score.
Then, with 5:27 left in the game, Samuel caught a quick screen on a crosser with tight end Charlie Woerner, and well… the blocking on this screen was teach tape all the way. No play better encapsulates how the 49ers just won the game from a physical perspective.
“They did a good job of getting their guys some balls in space,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said on Monday. “Like for instance, the last–I thought that was a really good call by Kyle [on the second Samuel touchdown]. We were in four-minute mode of trying to get to the quarterback, trying to create some confusion in the run game, and Kyle called the screen to Deebo in that scenario. Hats off. They got us as far as we are trying to sell out for the run, and they got us on a screen.
“First of all, that happened, which accounted for a lot of yards, and then I think it was just some uncharacteristic missed tackles. A tackle is kind of like when you drop a ball, right? To put it on the offensive analogy, when you drop a ball, the coaching point isn’t to say, ‘catch it.’ You tell them how to catch it, right, what went wrong.”
The run game was obvious... and obviously effective.
Christian McCaffrey ran 17 times for 93 yards and a touchdown in the game, and the yards didn’t come easy against Philadelphia’s dynamic fronts. In those first two drives, McCaffrey had two carries, and gained a total of zero yards. Shanahan, owner of perhaps the NFL’s most multi-faceted run game, then went with numbers against numbers. For the most part, McCaffrey ran to the pre-snap strong side, or the side reinforced with motion, and the 49ers had either fullback Kyle Juszczyk, a tight end, or Samuel in the backfield to further establish at least a draw, if not an advantage. For the most part, the plan was easily scoped. It’s just that San Francisco was so much better at the line of scrimmage and beyond.
McCaffrey’s third run of the game, an 11-yard gain with 9:35 left in the first quarter, had both Juszczyk and Kittle motioning to create the run strength. Both Juszczyk and Kittle blocking end Josh Sweat, and Kittle then going up a level, allowed the 49ers’ line to deal with the interior defensive line, and McCaffrey finally had a clear path.
And this nine-yard McCaffrey run with 2:40 left in the first half was pure power-on-power against the Eagles’ five-man front. Center Jake Brendel and right guard Spencer Burford doubled Jordan Davis at the nose, right guard Spencer Burford took Jalen Carter one-on-one, and left tackle Trent Williams went all Animal Style on Milton Williams.
The blocking was so good on this play, McCaffrey also had an opening to the left edge, but he decided to take the Chico Marx plan for offensive success.
Once again, Kyle Shanahan had the right answers.
Straight up, this was an impressive win for the 49ers. To go into the home of the NFL’s best team by record and just tear that team apart was something else. But it was the extent to which Shanahan and his coaches were able to determine and dominate the action on both sides of the ball that made one thing very clear — this is the NFL’s best team, and wherever you face them, you need to understand that the 49ers will have spent the week before the game against you rifling through all your best stuff, and coming up with answers to counter and eliminate it.
“No one was freaking out or anything,” Purdy said after the game of the reaction to those first two negative drives. “It was more like we have to get the ball rolling. We need a positive play. We need to envision and see a positive play and have some momentum and be creative off of that. Especially for myself as a quarterback, I just needed to see myself completing a ball, get a completion, get things rolling, and we did that. Kyle called some plays to allow us to get the ball out of my hands pretty quick to get into a rhythm. Once we did that, we rolled from there, and we didn’t look back.”
It all sounds very simple when it’s said, but to do it at the level you see from the best offensive coach in all of football is an entirely different story.
