49ers offense catches fire in 42-19 demolition of Eagles
There's no way to replay last year's NFC Championship Game, but the 49ers did their best on Sunday to back up their claims that they would have beaten the Eagles in January with a healthy quarterback.
Brock Purdy threw four touchdown passes in his return to Philadelphia and the 49ers scored touchdowns on six straight possessions after falling behind 6-0 in the first quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. That added up to a dominant 42-19 win that makes the race for the top seed in the NFC a lot closer than it was at the start of Week 13.
The Cowboys won on Thursday, which means they and the Niners are both a game back of the 10-2 Eagles. The Cowboys will host the Eagles in Week 14 while the 49ers will be hosting the Seahawks in the second game of their season series.
Purdy's elbow injury in Philly last season led to offseason surgery and an extended recovery, but Sunday was the latest sign that he's back to form. He was 19-of-27 for 317 yards and he spread the wealth to different receivers. Five different players had catches of at least 13 yards and three different players caught touchdowns from Purdy.
Wide receiver Deebo Samuel had two of them on short passes that he broke for long gains by running around and through Eagles tacklers. Samuel also ran for a score while picking up 138 yards from scrimmage.
Running back Christian McCaffrey ran for a touchdown and had 133 yards from scrimmage while George Kittle picked up 68 yards on four catches. It's the eighth time that the 49ers have scored at least 30 points in a game this season and Sunday's effort was one that will make opposing defensive coordinators have a lot of sleepless nights in the coming weeks.
The Eagles got into the red zone on both of their first two possessions, but couldn't score touchdowns and eventually found themselves down 21-6. Jalen Hurts' 12th touchdown run of the year got them back within eight points, but that was short-lived and Hurts would later leave for a concussion evaluation. He returned and threw a touchdown to DeVonta Smtih, but the deficit became too great after Samuel's second touchdown run.
In the end, about all that went wrong for the Niners was the ejection of linebacker Dre Greenlaw. He and Eagles security director Dom DiSandro were both told to leave the field after a brief incident on the Eagles sideline in the third quarter. It looked for a moment like that might galvanize the Eagles, but the 49ers proved to be too much.
