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That’s All, Folks – 35 Immediate Observations from 49ers 23, Eagles 19
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If the Eagles were going to do anything in the playoffs this season, we all knew it would be on the strength of their defense, and not the offense.
Unfortunately, neither unit played great in a 23 to 19 home loss to end the year.
It’s hard to put too much of the blame on Vic Fangio’s unit, which picked off Brock Purdy twice and limited the San Francisco running game, but the normally-stout secondary gave up some bad explosive plays on Sunday evening. They were burned early and burned late by a 49ers team missing key weapons offensively, and that’s the disappointing part about it. It’s one thing to give up 291 passing yards and three TDs to prime Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, but Purdy was throwing to Demarcus Robinson, some backups, a fullback, and his running back. Throw in the trick play for good measure and it was sad to watch, since this defense has played better against better competition.
Of course, if the Eagles’ pitiful and useless offense had done anything with the turnovers, we’re on to the Divisional Round right now, but once again Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni’s unit no-showed the second half. They took two picks and a 25-yard punt and turned all of that into a pair of field goals, which was never going to be enough to win the game. Too many stuffed runs, too many bad penalties, and too many head-scratching choices when it really mattered. They largely did what they’ve done all season, which is underperform relative to the talent level on the field.
Anybody surprised by that? Didn’t think so.
Throw in a Jake Elliott missed extra point and all three phases contributed in losing a game they had no business losing.
Now we turn the page with one final list of observations.
1) This was quite the outfit from Erin Andrews. Looked like she cleared out an entire badger den to make the coat:
2) Not often you see Quinyon Mitchell get beat even once in a game, but he was torched twice on the opening San Francisco drive, both times by DeMarcus Robinson of all people. His footwork seemed off, like he wasn’t settled in yet. Marcus Epps also came flying over on the 58-yard reception and couldn’t get a hand on Robinson. The secondary is probably the Eagles’ best unit on either side of the ball and they were all over the place to start.
3) As bad as the D looked on that drive, the Eagles’ offense starting well really settled things down and assuaged concerns. They hit it big with 29 yards for Saquon Barkley, a rare explosive in the run game, then a few more yards on the ensuing carry and a first down toss to A.J. Brown. It was pretty evident early on that the 49ers’ injury situation at the linebacker position was significant. There were a couple of runs on that drive that probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere a few weeks ago, but San Francisco wasn’t able to do anything with a couple of running plays behind Darius Cooper and the tight ends, including the end-around TD for Dallas Goedert.
4) Jake Elliot was 41 for 42 on extra point attempts entering the playoffs. Bad time to miss a gimme.
5) Good response from Mitchell on the second drive, as expected. Big PBU on George Kittle to find his way into the game and get comfortable.
6) Second Eagles drive: honestly didn’t mind the shot on 2nd and 2. That’s a down and distance when you see if you can hit an explosive. It was four-down territory anyway just inside the San Francisco half, so you knew you had two more plays to get two yards after that. Unfortunately, the stuffed run issue reared its ugly head once again, with Saquon going nowhere on 3rd down, then Hurts threw to a covered DeVonta Mitchell on 4th down against cover 0.
7) Christian McCaffrey had 7 yards on his first 5 carries. Nothing doing with Kyle Shanahan trying to run on first and 10 of the first three drives.
8) The third Eagles drive was a good advertisement for why the 3rd and long coward’s draw should go into the dustbin of history. They found themselves in 3rd and 15 after some funkiness in execution and a false start. Then they decided to throw instead of playing it safe and it resulted in a 4th and 1 tush push to keep the drive going.
9) The tush push is BACK. You love that they just lined up there and went for it. Don’t overthink it.
10) Lovely screen pass for Saquon. Not sure why screens aren’t used more in this offense. They didn’t need them in 2024, but bringing back these plays in 2025 would have been a nice wrinkle to maybe unlock a plodding O.
11) As good as that Tank Bigsby sequence was after the Barkley screen, they really telegraphed the second down Saquon run, the outside zone handoff. The play clock was dwindling and everybody knew it was coming, and it put them into 3rd and 5 instead of 3rd and 2 or 3rd and 3, at worst.
12) BUT, once again – it’s four-down territory, right? They know they’ve got two plays to work with, so they go to their bread-and-butter read-and-pull playbook and hit Goedert with some improvisation between tight end and quarterback. He’s been so good this season, somehow underrated despite shattering his single-season touchdown record. His red zone prowess has really filled the tush push and run game gap:
13) Gotta say, I’m stunned the refs picked up the flag on Cam Jurgens. That’s one of those sequences where we as fans have been kicked in the nuts many times in recent years, but, as you know, we have never said anything bad about NFL officiating, or Cowboy lover Dean Blandino. He gave a great explanation of why the flag was picked up.
14) Bummer to see the Kittle injury since the dude has been complimentary of Philly and Eagles fans over the years. That was a clear Achilles pop when they showed the replay coming back from commercial, confirmed later by the team.
15) Cowardly Kyle Shanahan called a timeout and then kicked a field goal. On one hand, you typically take the points in the playoffs, but the Eagles were up 13-7 at that point because they decided to do the exact opposite.
16) The Brown and Nick Sirianni interaction was less important than the fact that A.J. didn’t exactly lay out for either of those passes. The second one was definitely catchable even after the hand fighting and detaching:
17) That being said, the Fred Johnson false start really stunted that drive. You’ve got 3rd and 4 and another opportunity perhaps for a tush push or something short if you can get it to 4th and 1 or 4th and 2 with a couple of yards on the prior play.
18) As soon as San Francisco was throwing the ball to some guy named “Malik Turner,” you knew the Eagles were in good shape.
19) The Niners were out of timeouts and on the far periphery of field goal range, but that 3-man rush from Vic Fangio before halftime was fugazi. Just rush four. It’s 3rd and 10 with a little less than a minute remaining. You have two timeouts. Stay aggressive and try to get the ball back.
20) Good camera angles and commentary on the Purdy fumble to end the second quarter. You can’t stop the clock run off if you fumble out of bounds in that position.
21) Barkley had no business dropping that 3rd and 3 pass to open the second half. He catches that and quite easily jukes this dude out of his pants for a first down:
22) Epps with a pointless penalty to give away a cheap first down. Would have been 3rd and 1 with a chance to get off the field.
23) That was such a big pick from Mitchell. I was starting to feel a little iffy about that drive after the 9-yard run for McCaffrey and then the QB sneak to keep it alive. Kinda weird in a sense, because you felt pretty good about how the Eagles were playing, yet it was only a field goal game with the Niners driving.
24) Big Dom’s gotta catch that ball with his hands, not his body.
25) The Eagles had five stuffed runs in their first three second-half drives. It ultimately forced 3rd and 13 and sent Jake Elliott back onto the field for a field goal. They only got three points out of the Brock Purdy interception and the short punt, which was really underwhelming.
26) Tom Brady did a good job in the booth. Explained plays without being too dense, called for some things the Birds could do better (tempo and whatnot), and didn’t overdo it. He’s been good with a lot more booth reps.
27) Brutal to give up a friggin’ touchdown on a trick play. Come on man. Would have been 17-all at that point if Elliott just hit the extra point.
28) 1st play of the ensuing drive? Holding. You don’t even give yourself a chance to do anything meaningful.
29) Second interception gave the Birds life. Can’t believe Mitchell held on to that. From the live angle, it looked like he dropped it, but:
30) San Francisco got hosed with the “late hit” against Hurts. We would have been going absolutely nuts if they called that on the Eagles. In no world is that a penalty.
31) 2nd and 9, taking an end zone shot for Jahan Dotson… why?
32) Bad penalty on Reed Blankenship to negate a sack. Jake Tonges isn’t exactly prime Randy Moss out there. You should be able to cover him without wrapping and holding.
33) Not sure why the Niners kicked the extra point after going up 23 to 19. Go for two, try to make it a six-point game, then if Elliott misses another XP, at least the game is tied. Surely the analytics sheet does not tell you to kick there.
34) Brown dropping a 3rd and 5 pass with the season on the line is a good summation of this year.
35) Six second-half drives amounting to two field goals. A fitting way to end it.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com