The 49ers destroy the Eagles 42-19 in their first game against each other since the 2022 NFC Championship game. Both teams came in leading their divisions and were numbers 1 and 2 in the NFC conference standings. The Eagles won the last meeting, but many fans and players believe that the Eagles were lucky. In the first drive of the game, 49ers rookie quarterback Brock Purdy was hit from behind and tore his UCL. Players like Deebo Samuel and Dre Greenlaw said that they believe the 49ers would have won if they had their quarterback.
For the first quarter of this years’ game, that did not seem to be the case. The Niners had -6 yards of offense for the entire quarter. The Eagles, however, drove down the field twice, only managing 6 points of their own. At the beginning of the second quarter, Brock Purdy found Brandon Aiyuk in the back of the end zone for their first score of the game. Once the 49ers scored, they never stopped.
They scored touchdowns on 6 consecutive drives, the first time they had done it since 1992. The Eagles managed to score a few touchdowns, but were never able to truly recover from the 49ers’ strong mix of running and throwing the ball.
The biggest story of the game was the scuffle between 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw, and Eagles chief security officer Dom Disandro. Greenlaw made a tackle on Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith that he didn’t like. Smith got up and shoved Greenlaw, and Greenlaw shoved him back. Because they were close to the sideline, lots of players and coaches got close to the two. Disandro then put his hands on Greenlaw, seemingly to hold him back. Greenlaw pointed at Disandro and looked to have thrown a small punch at him. Borth Greenlaw and Disandro were ejected from the game.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan said, “I just can’t believe someone not involved in a football game can taunt our players like that and put their hand in our guy’s face.” This fired up both the 49ers and the Eagles’ sidelines. The Eagles quickly responded with a touchdown, but that was soon matched by the 49ers.
Deebo Samuel had the best performance of the night, scoring three times, including a rushing touchdown. Since the loss last season, Deebo has been at the forefront of the trash talk surrounding the Eagles and their “lucky win”. After the game, he said, “I ain’t gonna lie, I was in the zone all week long… Talkin’ trash is just part of the game. Hopefully nobody took it to heart.”
The 49ers improved to 9-3 and were now 1 game back of the #1 seed in the NFC, while the Eagles fell to 10-2. The 49ers host the Seattle Seahawks next week in an important NFC West showdown and the Eagles travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys to set the NFC East seeding. If the 49ers win and the Eagles lose, the 49ers will gain the #1 seed. The Cowboys, Eagles, and Niners will all be tied at 10-3, but San Francisco has the tiebreaker as they have beaten both teams this season.
