The Daily Press

Hurts, Eagles soar into Super Bowl, rout 49ers for NFC title

- By Dan Gelston AP Sports Writer

PHILADELPH­IA (AP) — Jalen Hurts had one of Philadelph­ia's four rushing touchdowns and the Eagles soared into the Super Bowl, forcing both of San Francisco's quarterbac­ks out of the game with injuries and beating the wounded 49ers 31-7 in the NFC championsh­ip game on Sunday.

The Eagles, who won the Super Bowl five years ago with a different coach and quarterbac­k, will try to do it again behind the formidable duo of Hurts and coach Nick Sirianni. Philadelph­ia will play either the Cincinnati Bengals or former Eagles coach Andy Reid's Kansas City Chiefs.

"We get to do it because we did it better than anyone in the NFC this year," Sirianni said.

Hurts had a modest game by his standards after a season in which he was a finalist for MVP. He was 15-of-25 passing for 121 yards and ran for just 39. Hurts sat alone at his locker dressed all in purple and he took a few puffs of a cigar as the Eagles celebrated around him. He understood there was one more game to win.

"I never knew how far we'd go," Hurts said, "but I never said it couldn't be done."

Miles Sanders ran for two touchdowns and linebacker Haason Reddick made the hit that forced 49ers rookie quarterbac­k Brock Purdy out of the game with an elbow injury. Reddick also recovered a fumble by Purdy's replacemen­t, Josh Johnson, who later suffered a concussion.

That forced Purdy back into the game, but his injury was clearly a factor as the 49ers all but gave up on throwing the ball, even while trailing by multiple scores.

San Francisco's bad luck at quarterbac­k was finally too much to overcome as its 12-game win streak ended. The Niners lost both Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo to season-ending injuries, and Purdy — the final pick in April's draft — lost as a starter for the first time.

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