SF 49ERS at Eagles Pregame Thread - 2022 Season Conference Final

I underestimated the Cowboys and thought the 9ers would blow them out of the water. Not with the Eagles. If the 9ers had problems with Cowboys' D-line last Sunday, they are arguably going to have even worse problems with the Eagles' D-line which in my view is No.1 in the league. Cowboys had the highest pressure rate, but like Richard Sherman said in his podcast, they don't finish. What does that mean? That means they don't always get to sack the QB. Still, Cowboys had 54 sacks for the season, ranked 3rd in the league. The Eagles, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. They absolutely finish. The Eagles lead the NFL with 70 sacks (in the regular season alone). 16 sacks more than the Cowboys. Then, you look at the 9ers. We have only 44 sacks with a massive gap of 26 sacks behind the Eagles. This is no joke. We are not talking about just a few more than the 9ers, across a 17 game season, we are talking about over 4 sacks per game. In fact, they sacked Daniel Jones 5 times in the Divisional Game. There is no other way to explain that other than the Eagles have a completely dominant D-line that is without a question better than the 9ers' line. Just to put things into context, even the 9ers' better 2019 line (with Buck and Dee Ford) only had 48 sacks. To add, their sack numbers are not skewed like the 9ers when we choose to feature Bosa in most of our stunts, their sacks are much more equally distributed across all of their D-linemen disregard whether they are DTs or DEs. John Lynch is well aware of the seriousness of the situation with the dominance of the Eagles' D-line which was why he tried to address it by signing Suh, but unfortunately for the 9ers not only did he not sign with the 9ers he chose to join the Eagles instead. What makes things worse is they also have the No.1 O-line on the other side of the ball which means the 9ers' much weaker pass rush would appear even more stark when compared to the performance of the Eagles' D-line. Our D-line just doesn't have enough push to make an impression on that O-line. Simply put, the 2 teams are fairly similarly built, only the Eagles' roster is considerably better, not only just on paper, but proven which is why they are the No.1 seed. One could even argue, if Jalen Hurts wasn't injured for the 2 games whereby they had to play Gardner Minshew instead who was completely useless and lost both games, Eagles could have finished with an even more dominant record of 16-1 heads and shoulders above the rest. And I haven't even talked about their offense. 2 things can kill the 9ers: 1) deep shots outside of the numbers with fast and physical WRs like AJ Brown who is a beast. We already saw how Ward did with Metcalf and 2) Jalen Hurts running. Is no secret the 9ers can't stop running QBs which dates back to the heydays of Russell Wilson to more recently Justin Fields, Jarrett Stidham and even Dak Prescott. Both are the top glaring weaknesses of the 9ers' D.

So, can the 9ers pull out an "one-off" win so to speak? I suppose anything is possible in football. But, if you want to do an objective analysis, I can't see it. The fact is as follows, we are now down to the best 4 teams of the entire NFL. If the 9ers happen to be the 4th, 3rd or even 2nd best team in the league, there is no shame in that. I am just proud of our guys that we have managed this far with a 12-game winning streak when we are down to our 3rd string QB. As it turns out, it has been a blessing in disguise, 9ers has been lucky in an unlucky situation because Purdy has been performing way above expectation. Overall, the team has played very well. But, when we are down to the final 4, the cream of the crop, I guess we just don't have quite enough. There is a reason why Vegas has the 9ers out of the 4 teams with the highest odds to win the Super Bowl. Let's hope I am wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. Godspeed & let's go 9ers!!

Originally posted by Rascal:
I underestimated the Cowboys and thought the 9ers would blow them out of the water. Not with the Eagles. If the 9ers had problems with Cowboys' D-line last Sunday, they are arguably going to have even worse problems with the Eagles' D-line which in my view is No.1 in the league. Cowboys had the highest pressure rate, but like Richard Sherman said in his podcast, they don't finish. What does that mean? That means they don't always get to sack the QB. Still, Cowboys had 54 sacks for the season, ranked 3rd in the league. The Eagles, on the other hand, is a completely different beast. They absolutely finish. The Eagles lead the NFL with 70 sacks (in the regular season alone). 16 sacks more than the Cowboys. Then, you look at the 9ers. We have only 44 sacks with a massive gap of 26 sacks behind the Eagles. This is no joke. We are not talking about just a few more than the 9ers, across a 17 game season, we are talking about over 4 sacks per game. In fact, they sacked Daniel Jones 5 times in the Divisional Game. There is no other way to explain that other than the Eagles have a completely dominant D-line that is without a question better than the 9ers' line. Just to put things into context, even the 9ers' better 2019 line (with Buck and Dee Ford) only had 48 sacks. To add, their sack numbers are not skewed like the 9ers when we choose to feature Bosa in most of our stunts, their sacks are much more equally distributed across all of their D-linemen disregard whether they are DTs or DEs. John Lynch is well aware of the seriousness of the situation with the dominance of the Eagles' D-line which was why he tried to address it by signing Suh, but unfortunately for the 9ers not only did he not sign with the 9ers he chose to join the Eagles instead. What makes things worse is they also have the No.1 O-line on the other side of the ball which means the 9ers' much weaker pass rush would appear even more stark when compared to the performance of the Eagles' D-line. Our D-line just doesn't have enough push to make an impression on that O-line. Simply put, the 2 teams are fairly similarly built, only the Eagles' roster is considerably better, not only just on paper, but proven which is why they are the No.1 seed. One could even argue, if Jalen Hurts wasn't injured for the 2 games whereby they had to play Gardner Minshew instead who was completely useless and lost both games, Eagles could have finished with an even more dominant record of 16-1 heads and shoulders above the rest. And I haven't even talked about their offense. 2 things can kill the 9ers: 1) deep shots outside of the numbers with fast and physical WRs like AJ Brown who is a beast. We already saw how Ward did with Metcalf and 2) Jalen Hurts running. Is no secret the 9ers can't stop running QBs which dates back to the heydays of Russell Wilson to more recently Justin Fields, Jarrett Stidham and even Dak Prescott. Both are the top glaring weaknesses of the 9ers' D.

So, can the 9ers pull out an "one-off" win so to speak? I suppose anything is possible in football. But, if you want to do an objective analysis, I can't see it. The fact is as follows, we are now down to the best 4 teams of the entire NFL. If the 9ers happen to be the 4th, 3rd or even 2nd best team in the league, there is no shame in that. I am just proud of our guys that we have managed this far with a 12-game winning streak when we are down to our 3rd string QB. As it turns out, it has been a blessing in disguise, 9ers has been lucky in an unlucky situation because Purdy has been performing way above expectation. Overall, the team has played very well. But, when we are down to the final 4, the cream of the crop, I guess we just don't have quite enough. There is a reason why Vegas has the 9ers out of the 4 teams with the highest odds to win the Super Bowl. Let's hope I am wrong, it wouldn't be the first time. Godspeed & let's go 9ers!!

Good to hear from you, Rascal.

The Eagles give up 4.6 yards per rush. If we can run we control the game. That 49er run game shows up early, Wow.

Originally posted by mayo49:
Good to hear from you, Rascal.

Long time no see, bud!

This is one of those game where Jimmy's quick release could've come in handy. If Philly has an aggressive pass rush, you either run the ball or get rid of it quick when passing which Jimmy did well. With that said I'm glad we're going into this with Brock. He gives us a much better chance to win.

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by mayo49:
Good to hear from you, Rascal.

Long time no see, bud!

Yeah, miss talking to you. I was away for a while, but I'm back.

Originally posted by khanusma:

Originally posted by BirdRick2112:
You're trying to start trouble where it doesn't exist. I've been nothing but respectful about the Forty Niners, even claiming they are one of my favorite all time NFL franchises. I also said the game will be close and I won't be surprised about either potential outcome. Green colored glasses yes, but I'm objective to know the nuances of this game. You're for real; we're for real. It's going to be; real. Not sure what else you want me to say.

I said you're a cool guy but here's where you are wrong. Your nuances are green colored and not objective in our board so we gonna be dicks if you don't get your s**t right. It's just what humans do.

1.) Data suggests 49ers are buying tickets. 18% are being bought from California.

2.) Point differential blah blah (i know you admitted it but you showed your green colored glasses since you haven't been keeping up to date and trying to explain why your team is better with false data on our board. You're gonna get called out for it.)

3.) Brock is playing qb as good as anyone since he came into the league stat wise

4.) Brock is poised and all the beat writers and media say how mature and non rookie he is. Hurts is awesome too.

5.) You said that the eagles stadium is some crazy scary place for opposing teams. It's no scarier than Levi's and we were hella loud. Linc will be the same way (For the 49ers fans though, it's gonna be rough. I've been there several times wearing red.)

6.) Eagles fans have abusive culture, not a few drunks. It's bad. Might not be uncommon, but it's not a couple drunks. I've been there multiple times and it's not cool. I've been to plenty of places and they don't tell you they're gonna kill you if you stand up or pour beer on you. Been to a couple stadiums, nothing like Philly trash fans. Haha.

Show me where I'm not objective. I've posted multiple times that this is an old school heavyweight matchup and I will not be surprised on either outcome unless it's a blowout. I also stated that the advantage you guys head last week (longer week, home field) was our advantage this week. I didn't say the Linc was scary. I said the fans are louder than Seattle fans even though Seattle's stadium is louder because of how it's built. I agree about the Eagles drunks but it's gotten better I think in part because of the improvement of the franchise over the last 25 years as opposed to what came before. We're simply not as angry and now that we have finally won that long elusive SB, there's definitely less pressure. Again, the overwhelming Eagles fans are good people who love their team, just like you guys. The a holes are few and far between. Do we have a higher percentage of them than you? Maybe but again, tiny group that is very loud. Calling Philly "trash fans" just hurts your credibility. I lived there for 31 years and go back often. They're just people living their lives. I'm as objective as objective can be and touting our strengths, just as you guys do with your team, hardly makes me unobjective. Peace!!

Originally posted by mayo49:

Originally posted by Rascal:

Originally posted by mayo49:
Good to hear from you, Rascal.

Long time no see, bud!

Yeah, miss talking to you. I was away for a while, but I'm back.

As you get older, I have lost that verve to want to argue with people on anything that I disagree with on 9ers football.

Originally posted by Eaglesfan32:

Originally posted by gold49digger:
Tbh, this is the true superbowl. These teams are built so complete that whoever gets out of this wins the superbowl imo

Bengals and chiefs of course have insane QBs but both have flaws that both Philly and us match up well against, plus Mahomes is a little banged up.

If defense is locked in and allow under 20 points, we win this. Eagles have a good defense for sure, but not as good as Dallas, and Purdy handled that solid all things considered.

I know your defense is really good. I would be shocked if you held us under 20 points. I think the RPO causes confusion on defense. Hurts is a master at it. But you do have the best linebackers in the game. Werner is that dude. But we can get behind your linebackers with AJ brown and Smith. Only thing Dallas has better on defense is linebackers. We don't have Micah Parsons but we have Hassan Reddick with 17 and half sacks. 5 forced fumbles. He's a game wrecker and very hard to block. Our d line is much better. Secondary is much better. Especially with CGJ back and hopefully Maddox back this week our slot corner. It's been along time since we had our secondary in full. When we had everyone in place we was leading the league in interceptions and turnovers. CGJ had 6 interceptions when he got hurt. We finally got him back. But maddox been out.

Sup Efan. All good points. Comes down to which Birds team shows up. I do feel the Eagles at their best will beat the 49ers at their best but you never know how it will play out until in plays out. One point I made previously that gives me hope; the Niners, at home with almost 2 days addl rest, scored under 20 points against Dallas. I'm highly confident the Eagles will score more than 20, so the Niners will need to do better against our sack happy defense, a tough task for sure. The 49ers are a force and the hottest team in football but I feel fairly confident that we'll pull off the win in what should be a nail biter. Are you from Philly? If so, what area? I grew up in the NE.

Originally posted by A49ER08:
Stop the run on D
Run the ball on O
Don't give up explosives on D
Make the eagles earn every yard, it's ok to bend. Just don't break, we win

I think 49ers lead the league in turnovers.

Turnovers > sacks in my opinion.

Originally posted by JTB1974:
This is going to be tough and I won't be surprised if we lose but why are alot of Eagles fans using the Giants game as an example of why they are going to destroy us? We are not the Giants. The Cowboy fans did the samething after they destroyed the Bucs. The Bucs are not a good football team and neither are the Giants. The Giants had Richie James as their go to WR. Their whole offense is Barkley. The only reason they moved the ball so good in their WC game was because they were faciing a worst defense in the league. The Giants were 3-6-1 in their last 10 regular season games. It's like us using the Seahawks game as an example of why the Cowboys and Eagles don't stand a chance against us.

There is only 3 good teams in the NFC this season and we just beat 1 of them. The other two are facing off this Sunday in Philly. Now like I said the Eagles should be favored, They are at home and more fresh and if they win it won't shock me at all. But don't try comparing us to the Giants. It's insulting.

I can answer that. Prior to the Giants game the big question was; are we going to get back to being that dominant team we were prior to the injuries or are we shot. The Giants game in which we dominated in every phase from start to finish, showed me that we're back and the injury bug mostly behind us, so it was an important game and should give the team confidence going into this matchup. Nobody is comparing the G men to the Niners but we do give them credit as they were one of footballs most improved and we'll coached teams as the season progressed and they did go into Minnesota and beat a good if not overrated Vikings team that won 13 games, not an easy task regardless of what you may think of them.

Originally posted by BirdRick2112:
Show me where I'm not objective. I've posted multiple times that this is an old school heavyweight matchup and I will not be surprised on either outcome unless it's a blowout. I also stated that the advantage you guys head last week (longer week, home field) was our advantage this week. I didn't say the Linc was scary. I said the fans are louder than Seattle fans even though Seattle's stadium is louder because of how it's built. I agree about the Eagles drunks but it's gotten better I think in part because of the improvement of the franchise over the last 25 years as opposed to what came before. We're simply not as angry and now that we have finally won that long elusive SB, there's definitely less pressure. Again, the overwhelming Eagles fans are good people who love their team, just like you guys. The a holes are few and far between. Do we have a higher percentage of them than you? Maybe but again, tiny group that is very loud. Calling Philly "trash fans" just hurts your credibility. I lived there for 31 years and go back often. They're just people living their lives. I'm as objective as objective can be and touting our strengths, just as you guys do with your team, hardly makes me unobjective. Peace!!

I just showed you where i didn't think you were objective. Why do you ask me to show you again? I just showed you!

More pressure is on Philly, they are the team expected to win, any momentum the Niners get will only add more pressure to them.

Imo the Cowboys were a worse matchup for the Niners than the Eagles. Even though these two teams are nearly evenly matched, I can see the Niners winning an easier game. Also, the Niners have faced worse odds in the playoffs on the road over the past several years with rosters that were not as good as the current roster.

Wouldn't be surprised if the Niners win by 2 scores.

Originally posted by khanusma:

Originally posted by BirdRick2112:
Show me where I'm not objective. I've posted multiple times that this is an old school heavyweight matchup and I will not be surprised on either outcome unless it's a blowout. I also stated that the advantage you guys head last week (longer week, home field) was our advantage this week. I didn't say the Linc was scary. I said the fans are louder than Seattle fans even though Seattle's stadium is louder because of how it's built. I agree about the Eagles drunks but it's gotten better I think in part because of the improvement of the franchise over the last 25 years as opposed to what came before. We're simply not as angry and now that we have finally won that long elusive SB, there's definitely less pressure. Again, the overwhelming Eagles fans are good people who love their team, just like you guys. The a holes are few and far between. Do we have a higher percentage of them than you? Maybe but again, tiny group that is very loud. Calling Philly "trash fans" just hurts your credibility. I lived there for 31 years and go back often. They're just people living their lives. I'm as objective as objective can be and touting our strengths, just as you guys do with your team, hardly makes me unobjective. Peace!!

I just showed you where i didn't think you were objective. Why do you ask me to show you again? I just showed you!

You made no valid point proving me unobjective, as I just highlighted. Sorry you think otherwise.

Originally posted by BirdRick2112:

Originally posted by Eaglesfan32:

Originally posted by gold49digger:
Tbh, this is the true superbowl. These teams are built so complete that whoever gets out of this wins the superbowl imo

Bengals and chiefs of course have insane QBs but both have flaws that both Philly and us match up well against, plus Mahomes is a little banged up.

If defense is locked in and allow under 20 points, we win this. Eagles have a good defense for sure, but not as good as Dallas, and Purdy handled that solid all things considered.

I know your defense is really good. I would be shocked if you held us under 20 points. I think the RPO causes confusion on defense. Hurts is a master at it. But you do have the best linebackers in the game. Werner is that dude. But we can get behind your linebackers with AJ brown and Smith. Only thing Dallas has better on defense is linebackers. We don't have Micah Parsons but we have Hassan Reddick with 17 and half sacks. 5 forced fumbles. He's a game wrecker and very hard to block. Our d line is much better. Secondary is much better. Especially with CGJ back and hopefully Maddox back this week our slot corner. It's been along time since we had our secondary in full. When we had everyone in place we was leading the league in interceptions and turnovers. CGJ had 6 interceptions when he got hurt. We finally got him back. But maddox been out.

Sup Efan. All good points. Comes down to which Birds team shows up. I do feel the Eagles at their best will beat the 49ers at their best but you never know how it will play out until in plays out. One point I made previously that gives me hope; the Niners, at home with almost 2 days addl rest, scored under 20 points against Dallas. I'm highly confident the Eagles will score more than 20, so the Niners will need to do better against our sack happy defense, a tough task for sure. The 49ers are a force and the hottest team in football but I feel fairly confident that we'll pull off the win in what should be a nail biter. Are you from Philly? If so, what area? I grew up in the NE.

The 49ers offense has been bottom of the league in redzone scoring this season at home. But on the road, they have been top 3 in redzone scoring all season.

The matchup I am looking most forward to seeing is how well Slay and Bradberry fair against the #1 run blocking WR unit in the NFL. If your CB's cannot get off there blocks on those outside zones and screens, it could be a long day for them.

Your d line is the #1 d line in pass rush this season no doubt. They are no joke. But the best way to negate a pass rush is to run the ball and utilize quick passing. Something we excel at with our entire offense run blocking and our YAC Bros taking short passes for chunk yards. While you have a great coverage secondary, they lack in block shedding as well as tackling.

Where I see your offense having success against our defense is your two stud WR's and Jalen Hurts ability to kill us with his legs.

I don't see either defense shutting down the opposing offense and their should be plenty of chunk plays to go around. I see the final score being something like 27-24 or 28-27 with either coming out on top to represent the NFC in the SB.