Niners Nation
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was asked about the revenge angle his team will face this upcoming weekend. In Shanahan’s mind, that’s more of a media narrative or something people outside of the building focus on:
“Yeah, I think those storylines and stuff are great for fans and for people to talk about throughout the week and stuff. But, I don’t think the players think much about that. Especially how many years it is removed on both sides. The guys who were there in ‘23 or ‘22, I think the best deal is understand the atmosphere of Philly, what it’s like to go there and play a big game and how it can be. It helps guys be more prepared for the moment, but I don’t see much correlation into the previous meetings to this one.”
Deebo Samuel led the 49ers in targets that day. The Eagles’ leading rushers were Kenneth Gainwell and Miles Sanders. The 49ers had Dre Greenlaw, Talanoa Hufanga, Jimmie Ward, Charvarius Ward, Javon Kinlaw, and Samson Ebukam on defense. The Eagles had Javon Hargrave, James Bradberry, T.J. Edward, Haason Reddick, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson defensively. These teams couldn’t be more different heading into these playoffs.
Shanahan believes his team is ready to embrace the difficult road ahead, and that starts with taking down the reigning Super Bowl champs:
“I think that’s what our guys are ready for. I mean, to go all into that game, I don’t think we cared who we played. The main thing was knowing that you’ve got to go to three on the road to get there to the last game of the season as opposed to two games at home to get there. So, that was the biggest thing in playing the hard way. Right now, you can’t get picky about who you play, whether it’s the defending champs or whether it’s the seventh seed. This is the playoffs. Everyone’s earned the right to be here. If you want to reach your ultimate goal, you’ve got to be good enough to beat anybody.”
The Eagles shared the same sentiment that who you play doesn’t really matter, as long as you’re in. Why else would you play for the lower seed? We see it every year in the playoffs. There are no easy outs. The Lions found that out last year in the divisional round.
