Eagles Super Again, Blast 49ers to Punch Ticket to Super Bowl LVII
PHILADELPHIA – The biggest, baddest team in the NFC all season long finished the job on Sunday – the Eagles are going to Super Bowl LVII.
They punched their ticket to the big game with a ferocious defensive assault and four rushing touchdowns that propelled them to a 31-7 victory over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game at raucous Lincoln Financial Field.
It was 28-7 heading to the fourth quarter when most of the 70,000 fans in attendance, save for a few scant pockets of San Fran fans, began signing Jon Bon Jovi’s ‘Living on a Prayer’ after the third quarter ended.
The stadium turned into a giant karaoke venue during timeouts in the fourth quarter.
It will be the Eagles' second trip to the Super Bowl in six seasons. On their last visit, they stunned the dynasty that was the New England Patriots, 41-33, on Feb. 4, 2018.
"It means a lot," said WR DeVonta Smith, who kept the Eagles' opening-game scoring march alive with a 29-yard catch on fourth-and-three that took the offense to the 6-yard-line.
"You never know what’s going to happen. This team is not going to be the same. To where in college, you know you’re going to get back. You gotta make the most of these opportunities because you never know when you’re going to be back in it."
The Eagles outscored their two playoff opponents 69-14 on the way to this year’s Super Bowl in two weeks in Glendale, Ariz. It just doesn’t come any more dominant than that on the game’s biggest stages.
This time, they halted the 49ers’ 12-game winning streak.
San Francisco was just too undisciplined, committing 11 penalties for 81 yards, and now have to come to grips with their second straight championship game loss after falling to the L.A. Rams, 20-17 last year.
"This is something you dream about your whole life," said head coach Nick Sirianni. "Like I said to the guys, we've all been dreaming about it, whether you were dreaming about it when you were two, 10, 14, 18 or when you got in the NFL, this is something we all dream about, and we get to do it because we did it better than anybody else in the NFC this year. It's pretty special.
"Fans were awesome. Atmosphere was unbelievable. When you guys go into our indoor, there's always that picture in the back part of it of the 2017 NFC Championship game, and it's just the electricity of the stadium. We're looking forward to getting another picture up there of this special moment that we had."
The game was marred by an ugly incident with 4:13 to play when 49ers OT Trent Williams body-slammed safety K’Von Wallace, who came up swinging. Both players were ejected after refs had to order both teams’ players to their respective sidelines.
The Eagles’ defense was also too much for the Niners to handle, especially Haason Reddick.
The pass rush star had a pair of sacks in the first quarter, one of which was a karate chip to Purdy’s elbow that sent him to the blue medical tent and knocked him out of the game – at least until the third quarter when his backup, Josh Johnson was thumped by Ndamukong Suh and had to visit the blue tent himself.
Johnson, 36, is with his 14th team in 15 NFL seasons and that doesn't include such minor league teams such as the Sacramento Mountain Lions.
He is technically the 49ers’ fourth-string QB and didn’t sign with them until Dec. 4, and he couldn’t make it through this one. He was ruled out with a concussion, so Purdy had to return, but it was clear he was limited and all he did was hand off.
And when you’re trailing 21-7 then 28-7, handing off isn’t going to get it done.
In addition to his two sacks, Reddick had a forced fumble recovered by Linval Joseph, as the Eagles won the turnover battle 3-0, and recovered a fumble when Johnson dropped the snap with just over a minute to play.
Miles Sanders had two rushing scores, Boston Scott one, and Jalen Hurts one. Jake Elliott’s 31-yard field goal accounted for the final score.
Sanders’ second TD of the game, this one a 13-yard scamper around the left side, gave the Eagles a 14-7 with 1:36 to go in the second quarter.
"I’m proud of Coach Sirianni, the whole coaching staff; offensive staff, defensive staff, special teams staff," said Sanders. "We’ve got a great, great atmosphere in our building, and I love it. And like I told y’all before, I would love to be here for the rest of my career. Love it.”
Reddick’s recovery late in the second half at the SF 30 set up Boston Scott’s 10-yard TD run with 16 seconds gave Philly a 21-7 lead at halftime.
The two TDs came in a span of 1:20.
The Eagles took a 7-0 lead on a Sanders 6-yard run. He wasn’t touched on that one, either.
The score came on the opening possession after the 49ers won the toss and deferred, giving the Eagles the ball first. It took them 11 plays to go 66 yards in 5:12 to take the early lead.
The Niners tied it with 8:29 to go in the second quarter on a nifty 23-yard run from Christian McCaffrey.
Overshadowed all week by the Niners' defense, which was ranked No. 1 in the league, the Eagles' defense, which was ranked second, showed they were the better unit.
It held the 49ers to just 164 yards of offense, while the Eagles ran for 148 yards with 25 first downs to the 49ers' 11.
“We took a little bit (of umbrage to the talk about the 49ers' defense)," said Brandon Graham, "but we just kept it quiet and kept it casual. Because we heard some things that we didn’t like.
"People trying to be sarcastic and doing little stuff, which is cool because we have much respect for them. He’s a baller, you know No. 85 (49ers TE George Kittle, who had three catches for 32 yards), he said some stuff but he’s a baller though. Much respect, he had us really making sure we were on our ‘A’ game (Sunday)."
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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
