Rivals cruising toward a bruising
Expect the 49ers and Eagles to try to bully each other
SAN FRANCISCO — Last season, when the San Francisco 49ers visited the Eagles in Week 2, running back JaMycal Hasty left with a high ankle sprain. Running back Trey Sermon exited with a concussion. And running back Elijah Mitchell suffered a sprained shoulder that forced him to miss the next two games.
The battered backfield included Pro Bowl fullback Kyle Juszczyk, who wasn’t technically injured. But he was in bad shape after a back-alley brawl he recently termed among the most physical of his 10-season, 155-game career.
“I remember it took me a couple weeks after that game to really feel like I’d bounced back,” Juszczyk said. “So I expect them to bring it again.”
Sunday, 16 months after the 49ers’ 1711 win at Lincoln Financial Field, they return to face Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game. And it figures to double as the type of slobber-knocker that tight end George Kittle has previously termed a “body-bag game.”
The top-seeded Eagles are far better and perhaps even more bruising than their 2021 edition that went 9-8 and lost in the wildcard round of the playoffs. And the second-seeded 49ers will arrive on a 12game winning streak in which they’ve taken their brand of bully ball to new levels.
The feeling Juszczyk had after battling the Eagles last year, a game that was followed by a 49ers’ loss in Week 3? The 49ers’ 2022 opponents can relate: Teams went 0-15 this season the week after playing the 49ers, who know this next opponent will likely leave them hurting, win or lose.
The Eagles “are just as physical of a team as we are,” linebacker Dre Greenlaw said.
Given that, what might happen when two ill-intentioned heavyweights meet with a trip to the Super Bowl at stake? Posed that question, right tackle Mike McGlinchey flashed a sarcastic smile.
“It’s going to be some good, clean family fun,” McGlinchey said.
The quarterbacks, of course, have hogged plenty of pre-kickoff headlines. For good reason. The 49ers’ Brock Purdy, a seventh-round rookie, is 7-0 as a starter and is one win from becoming the first rookie to start in a Super Bowl. And the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts is a dualthreat wonder who was a strong NFL MVP candidate before a shoulder injury sidelined him for two late-season games.
But the most talent Sunday will be in the trenches.
The two best players on the 49ers’ loaded roster might be All-Pro left tackle Trent Williams, a presumptive first-ballot Hall of Famer, and All-Pro pass rusher Nick Bosa, the presumptive NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
And the Eagles can match the 49ers’ force on their offensive and defensive fronts.
Philadelphia’s defensive line includes six players who were top-15 draft picks. The Eagles had 70 sacks, most in the NFL since 1989, and became the first team in league history to have four players post at least 10 sacks.
Still, Philadelphia’s historic front isn’t even the best unit on its own team. At least that’s the assessment of 49ers defensive coordinator DeMeco Ryans, who hailed a group that’s headlined by two All-Pros, right tackle Lane Johnson and center Jason Kelce.
“Their offensive line,” Ryans said, “is the strength of that team.”
The 49ers ranked first in total defense. And the Eagles were second. The 49ers ranked eighth in rushing. And the Eagles were fifth. Those ingredients allowed them to often overwhelm opponents: The 49ers led the NFL in point differential (plus-173) and the Eagles ranked third (plus-133).
“I think the two teams are built very similarly,” McGlinchey said. “I think it’s two teams that understand you win the game by running the football and playing damn good defense. And I think we do those things in a lot of different ways. I don’t think our styles are exactly the same. But at the core that’s who we both are.”
The most obvious stylistic difference is in their rushing attacks. The 49ers’ QBs rushed for just 113 yards, and they sealed their 19-12 divisional-playoff win against Dallas with a steady secondhalf diet of smashmouth inside-zone runs by Christian McCaffrey and Elijah Mitchell.
In contrast, the Eagles incorporate plenty of zone-read runs with Hurts and running back Miles Sanders (1,269 yards). Hurts, who rushed for 760 yards and 13 touchdowns, is the type of mobile QB who has been able to exploit the 49ers’ defensive aggressiveness.
The 49ers were 2-4 in the regular season when facing QBs who rushed for at least 250 yards on the year. This week, Greenlaw said they reviewed video of their 28-14 loss at Atlanta, a mid-October game in which elusive QB Marcus Mariota rushed for 50 yards on six carries with a touchdown and completed 13 of 14 passes.
Bosa invoked another game in which an opposing QB found wide lanes to run and throw. The 49ers allowed their second-most points and yards (500) this season in a 37-34 overtime win at Las Vegas when QB Jarrett Stidham made his first career start.
“I think we got tested in that Raiders game, kind of unexpectedly,” Bosa said. “And I think that kind of reminded us of what a kryptonite could be of the way we play.