Niners Nation
The San Francisco 49ers pulled off the improbable, beating the Philadelphia Eagles on the road 23-19 despite being six-point underdogs and losing star tight end George Kittle early in the game.
It was a game filled with mistakes on both sides, but the 49ers managed to keep it to a three-point game at the half and had an impressive defensive performance over the final 30 minutes, while their offense made some timely plays late for the comeback victory.
With the win, the 49ers will now travel to Seattle to take on the Seahawks for a third time this season, with the winner getting a trip to the NFC Championship Game.
Here are three quick takeaways from the 49ers nail-biting win over the Eagles on Sunday.
Coaching advantage
The 49ers defense did not do well early in the game. They were gashed on their opening drive for a 10-play, 63-yard touchdown drive. Two drives later, Philadelphia ate up nine minutes of clock on a 16-play, 94-yard touchdown drive to take a 13-7 lead, and things weren’t looking great for the 49ers.
But, the defense completely turned things around from there. They got Philadelphia to a three-and-out to end the half, giving the offense a chance to score (which was botched).
Then, they had a three-and-out and a four-play drive that both resulted in punts to open up the third quarter as the offense struggled, keeping the team in the game. Robert Saleh had some really timely calls in that stretch with some nice Cover 0 blitzes, good adjustments to keep things between the tackles in the run game, and the defense had some good coverage despite not getting as much pressure on Jalen Hurts.
Then, when the Eagles started at the San Francisco 46-yard line after a bad punt, Saleh and his defense held Philadelphia to a 10-play drive that got only 23 yards and a field goal, keeping the score at 16-10.
The timely defensive calls continued in the fourth quarter, where Philadelphia had a three-and-out, another field goal drive, and a huge turnover on downs with under a minute left that sealed the deal. Perhaps Saleh’s best call came on 4th & 11, where he showed the similar Cover 0 look that he’d thrown out several times before in the game before dropping several back into coverage, confusing Hurts, who was looking Dallas Goedert’s way the whole time. That led to a pass breakup and the game-sealing incompletion.
Offensively, Kyle Shanahan found a way. I thought the timeout usage in the first half (and even the start of the second half) was not good. The 49ers used a timeout on defense early in the second quarter after the Eagles converted a 4th & 1.
They then used a second timeout on a 4th & 2 in the red zone, initially keeping the offense out before kicking the field goal. While the decision to kick a field goal was the right one, using a timeout there in that situation was...
