Niners hope they don’t blow it again
PHILADELPHIA — The lategame meltdowns stick in San Francisco.
Take the Super Bowl against Kansas City following the 2019 season. The 49ers became the third team in Super Bowl history to cough up a 10-point lead in the second half and lost to the Chiefs. Or last season’s NFC title game, when a 17-7 lead unravelled because of a dropped interception, a conservative fourth-down call and an interception on the final drive. Winner, Rams.
Another blown opportunity at a championship that’s hard to forget.
“As you go back to last year, we were a couple of plays away from making it to the Super Bowl again,” wide receiver Deebo Samuel said. “What’s it really going to take for us to get there? We just have to minimize the mistakes and everybody has to be on their assignments.”
Near perfection.
That’s a pretty heady task for any team, much less one headed into Philadelphia, where the cold, an MVP finalist and the top-seeded team in the NFC await. It’s going to get crazy loud at Lincoln Financial Field.
The 49ers say they’re ready. They have won 12 straight games, including seven in a row since rookie Brock Purdy took over at quarterback after Jimmy Garoppolo was injured.
The second-seeded 49ers have been on the brink of adding a sixth Super Bowl for years, and their
appearance Sunday in the NFC championship game is their third in four seasons. The Eagles may not have been a preseason favorite to get here, but a series of bold moves – notably the acquisitions of wide receiver A.J. Brown, linebacker Haason Reddick, cornerback James Bradberry and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson – have turned them into a team with a Super Bowl-or-bust outlook.
Want near perfection? The Eagles know something about that in Pro Bowl QB Jalen Hurts’ starts, with a 14-1 record in the regular season and last week’s playoff victory against the New York Giants. Hurts is playing through the lingering effects of a
sprained right shoulder that cost him two games. He is putting in overtime ahead of his biggest test of the season against the 49ers’ No. 1-ranked defence.
“It’s in his DNA to be here at all times working on his craft,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “Whether that’s in the weight room, whether that’s in the training room, whether that’s in the film room, this guy is obsessed with getting better.”
Hurts had some doubters that he was the real-deal franchise QB headed into training camp. He wiped out any concerns after the opening-week win against Detroit and kept piling up big numbers and wins to the point where he was an NFL MVP finalist.
All that’s keeping Hurts from a Super Bowl, the Eagles’ second in six seasons, is the last pick of the draft.
Maybe it’s more than just Purdy’s play that helps the 49ers. He has no memory of the Niners’ past collapses.
“He has a natural ability to play the position and that’s why he’s fun to coach because when he does make mistakes and do things, he can see it, he can know why, we can see it and we can all understand it,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said.
He gives them a chance, one reason the oddsmakers list the 49ers as just 2 1/2-point underdogs, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
Purdy hasn’t had much experience playing in a hostile environment with only two road starts. The first one at Seattle gave Purdy experience using the silent count, which Shanahan told him would be beneficial in the future.
“He did say it was good preparation for what we might have to play in terms of the playoffs, going on the road for road games and obviously Philadelphia,” Purdy said. “In these kind of games, it’s all about communication. How can you operate smoothly, get in and out of the huddle, get the play off the right way, make sure everyone is on the same page.”
The 49ers’ aggressive defence hasn’t faced many mobile quarterbacks this season. That figures to change against Hurts and the Eagles, who use designed quarterback runs and scrambles as a big part of their offence. Hurts rushed for 760 yards and 13 TDs.