Brock Purdy will headline Eagles-49ers rematch – but Philadelphia should be even more wary of something else

The long-awaited rematch of the NFC championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles is here. (Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports)

At a Philadelphia podium on January 29, two shadows obscured Kyle Shanahan’s face.

Shanahan’s team-logoed baseball cap cast the physical shadow over the eyes of the San Francisco 49ers head coach. And then there was the psychological shadow, just as visible in his deflated expression, as he processed the shock of quarterback injuries decimating his team’s promising postseason run.

“I just hurt for those guys,” Shanahan said after Brock Purdy’s UCL tear and Josh Johnson’s concussion sent the 49ers to a no-man’s land so extreme that the NFL would soon change its rules to avoid a repeat. “I thought they got dealt a pretty tough card today. A tough hand.

“I thought we had a chance to knock them off today and came up short.”

Ten months after the Eagles’ 31-7 NFC championship game win, the 49ers travel to Philadelphia for a rematch Sunday at 4:25 p.m. ET. The return is emotional – for Purdy, who’s since rebounded from offseason UCL surgery to lead the league with a 112.3 passer rating; for the 49ers, who seek not just to be very good every year but to win the whole thing; and even for the Eagles, who won an uncompetitive conference championship and then fell three points short of a Lombardi Trophy.

The contest is also inarguably significant to the landscape of league greats. Sure, as Shanahan and Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni have preached this week, these 2023 squads front players, schemes and ethos that have evolved since January. And yet: These teams once again hold the top two NFC playoff spots entering Week 13. The 10-1 Eagles boast the league’s best record, while the 8-3 49ers’ mark trailed only the Eagles and Baltimore Ravens through 12 weeks.

This game is about much more than exorcising last season’s demons. It’s as meaningfully a referendum on what each team can do this…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-01 16:43:30

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