Brock Purdy threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey with 2:54 left and the San Francisco 49ers ended the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles’ season with a 23-19 win in Sunday’s wild-card playoff game in Philadelphia.
The 49ers will visit the Seattle Seahawks in next weekend’s NFC divisional round and the Chicago Bears will host the Los Angeles Rams. The Eagles had been 5-0 at home in the playoffs under head coach Nick Sirianni.
“It was not an easy task. Obviously it’s the NFL and it never is,” Purdy said after the game. “For us to come in here and just do whatever it takes, obviously you wish you could play a little bit better in certain areas and in certain situations, but at the end of the day, it’s a fourth-quarter game and you’ve got to go score for the season and for your team.”
Purdy passed for 262 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and McCaffrey finished with 114 yards from scrimmage and two TD catches. Demarcus Robinson caught six passes for 111 yards and a score and San Francisco improved to 8-2 on the road this season.
Jalen Hurts threw for 168 yards and a touchdown and Saquon Barkley ran for 106 yards for the Eagles. Dallas Goedert became the first tight end in NFL playoff history to rush for a touchdown and also caught a TD.
There were three lead changes in the final quarter.
The 49ers pulled ahead with a trick play on the first snap of the fourth quarter, with Jauan Jennings throwing a 29-yard touchdown pass to McCaffrey. Eddy Pineiro’s extra point made it 17-16.
After Quinyon Mitchell’s second interception of Purdy, the Eagles went ahead 19-17 on Jake Elliott’s 33-yard field goal with eight minutes to play.
Purdy responded with the 10-play, 66-yard drive capped by the TD toss to McCaffrey. Pineiro missed the extra point.
“Brock had a couple of mistakes obviously with his two picks,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said. “But to come back on that last drive and get us in the end zone, lead us all the way down there, get to the third guy in his progression on the touchdown. Real proud of the guys.”
The Eagles crossed midfield before the two-minute warning and had a first down at the 49ers’ 20 before stalling. On fourth-and-11 with 43 seconds left, Hurts’ pass to Goedert was broken up by Eric Kendricks.
“What I said to the guys is that adversity shapes you to who you are, if you allow it to,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “There’s a lot to be thankful for, but you’ve got to use this adversity to shape — and that’s for everybody in that locker room, myself, the coaches, the players. Let the pain shape you to what you want to be.”
San Francisco struck first thanks to Robinson’s weaving, 61-yard catch-and-run on the second snap of the game. Four plays later, Purdy hit Robinson with a 2-yard pass for a 7-0 lead.
Philadelphia answered with a TD on its first drive on a 1-yard sweep by Goedert. Elliott’s extra-point try hit the left upright on a windy day, and it was 7-6 midway through the first quarter.
The Eagles converted two fourth downs on a 16-play, 94-yard drive to take a 13-7 lead in the second quarter. Hurts picked up a fourth-and-1 at his own 43 with a “tush push” and fired a 9-yard TD to Goedert on fourth-and-2.
It was 13-10 after Pineiro booted a 36-yard field goal for the 49ers with 2:50 left in the half. It was a costly drive for San Francisco as star tight end George Kittle was carted off with an Achilles injury.
“Losing Kittle early in the game was obviously a depressing play for everybody when you see that. Guys stepped it up and still made plays and competed,” Shanahan said.
The second half was scoreless until Elliott’s 41-yard field goal put Philadelphia up 16-10 with 2:11 left in the third quarter.
–Field Level Media
