Crossing Broad
If the Eagles were going to do anything in the playoffs this season, we all knew it would be on the strength of their defense, and not the offense.
Unfortunately, neither unit played great in a 23 to 19 home loss to end the year.
It’s hard to put too much of the blame on Vic Fangio’s unit, which picked off Brock Purdy twice and limited the San Francisco running game, but the normally-stout secondary gave up some bad explosive plays on Sunday evening. They were burned early and burned late by a 49ers team missing key weapons offensively, and that’s the disappointing part about it. It’s one thing to give up 291 passing yards and three TDs to prime Joe Montana and Jerry Rice, but Purdy was throwing to Demarcus Robinson, some backups, a fullback, and his running back. Throw in the trick play for good measure and it was sad to watch, since this defense has played better against better competition.
Of course, if the Eagles’ pitiful and useless offense had done anything with the turnovers, we’re on to the Divisional Round right now, but once again Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni’s unit no-showed the second half. They took two picks and a 25-yard punt and turned all of that into a pair of field goals, which was never going to be enough to win the game. Too many stuffed runs, too many bad penalties, and too many head-scratching choices when it really mattered. They largely did what they’ve done all season, which is underperform relative to the talent level on the field.
Anybody surprised by that? Didn’t think so.
Throw in a Jake Elliott missed extra point and all three phases contributed in losing a game they had no business losing.
Now we turn the page with one final list of observations.
1) This was quite the outfit from Erin Andrews. Looked like she cleared out an entire badger den to make the coat:
2) Not often you see Quinyon Mitchell get beat even once in a game, but he was torched twice on the opening San Francisco drive, both times by DeMarcus Robinson of all people. His footwork seemed off, like he wasn’t settled in yet. Marcus Epps also came flying over on the 58-yard reception and couldn’t get a hand on Robinson. The secondary is probably the Eagles’ best unit on either side of the ball and they were all over the place to start.
3) As bad as the D looked on that drive, the Eagles’ offense starting well really settled things down and assuaged concerns. They hit it big with 29 yards for Saquon Barkley, a rare explosive in the run game, then a few more yards on the ensuing carry and a first down toss to A.J. Brown. It was pretty evident early on that the 49ers’ injury situation at the linebacker position was significant. There were a couple of runs on that drive that probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere a...
