Niners play the game we had waited for
Those were the San Francisco 49ers we expected, loaded with talent and intent, taking up the challenge and taking down the franchise with the best record.
The Philadelphia Eagles came in 10-1. They were playing at home in damp weather. And the 49ers crushed them, dominating on defense, and overwhelming on offense.
San Francisco won 42-19, the Niners’ highest point total of the season. This was a game that had Niners players talking with more than a bit of confidence — as opposed to the pre-game trash talk from running back/receiver Deebo Samuel.
The post-season still is more than a month away, and teams such as the dreaded Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs are not to be ignored.
Yet this game, if nothing else, restored the belief in the Niners, who lost three in a row at one disappointing stretch. They have regained their swagger and position at the top of pro football’s food chain.
They also can create a bit of strange confusion on the sideline, with their own defensive lineman, Dre Greenlaw getting ejected for a fight that also brought about the ejection of an official from Philly’s Lincoln Field.
What he was doing among the athletes is a question still to be answered.
The Niners in their performance answered any question about their quality. True, they went the first down and with only a few yards, but that defense was spectacular, and San Francisco only fell behind 6-0. After that, it was Niners, Niners, Niners, Samuel running, Christian McCaffrey running and catching, and the pass rush squeezing Philly Jalen (until it) Hurts.
“Our play spoke louder than words," said Niners star linebacker Fred Warner. “We knew coming in what we had to do.”
They had to defeat the team that knocked the 49ers out of the playoffs, 31-7, last year in the NFC championship game after quarterback Brock Purdy left with an elbow injury that would take months to heal.
“I wasn’t looking for revenge,” Purdy said after completing 19 of 27 passes for 314 yards and four touchdowns. “I just wanted to win.”
He and the Niners (9-3) did because of the beautiful merging of offense and defense — or should we say defense and offense, the Eagles held to 333 net yards as compared to 456 for San Francisco.
We’re told repeatedly the only statistic that counts is the final score, but the lopsided differences in the other numbers are more than an indication of the differential in that score.
The strength of any football (or basketball or baseball) team is constructed on defense, keeping the opposition from scoring, a reason the Niners are paying edge rusher Nick Bosa $34 million a year. Sunday, the rest of the defensive line paid off in dividends.
“It’s not making sacks, this isn’t an individual thing. We work as a team,” said Bosa. “We try to keep the pressure on. Even if you don’t get there, they have to block you for a long time and it wears them out. I think the job we did was awesome.”
Hard to argue after smashing a team that had lost only once.