Perspective: Take away the injuries and whistle-happy officiating in the 49ers’ loss to the Eagles, and the NFC championship should have been a different game, Candace Buckner writes.
Or what if Eagles linebacker Haason Reddick hadn’t tattooed Brock Purdy’s right elbow on the quarterback’s third dropback? That sack-fumble effectively ended Purdy’s time in the NFC championship game and forced the 49ers to test the limits of the depth chart with their fourth and fifth quarterbacks of the season.
“This is something we all dream about, and we get to do it because we did it better than anybody else in the NFC this year,” Eagles Coach Nick Sirianni said. “It’s pretty special.”MVP candidate Jalen Hurts wasn’t all that special — he passed for just 121 yards and finished with a 72.3 quarterback rating. And he didn’t have to be. While not relying solely on Hurts, the Eagles leaned on their physicality.
Then, when Reddick met Purdy, the pain only worsened for the 49ers and their legion of fans. Purdy, the rookie quarterback living a charmed NFL life with his mastermind coach and offensive weapons, had known only victory in his previous seven starts. However, during San Francisco’s opening offensive possession, Reddick blazed into the backfield and smashed into Purdy’s throwing arm.
“We lost our last quarterback,” Shanahan said. “Then, after that, we were inspired watching our defense and stuff. We felt the whole time, down two scores, we felt we could run the ball well enough and hopefully generate some stuff and hopefully get a turnover on the other side or something like that to give us a chance to come back. But we didn’t move the chains enough.
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