PHILADELPHIA — This was a gift that the Eagles and their fans will have no problem accepting.
It will be argued, of course, that this game could have had a different outcome if Brock Purdy, the most relevant Mr. Irrelevant in NFL history, did not go down with an elbow injury on the final play of the San Francisco 49ers’ first offensive series.
Argue away, folks. It happened and it opened the door to the Eagles’ fourth Super Bowl appearance in franchise history and their second in the last five years.
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The Eagles, with the best record in the NFL, are headed to the Super Bowl with a coach mocked by fans when he was hired; a quarterback who raised eyebrow when he was drafted and elicited doubts that he was a franchise quarterback; and a handful of brilliant additions by a general manager who was stuffed in a back office during the Chip Kelly era. They dominated the 49ers, knocking out a pair of quarterbacks and neutering the offense.
After sputtering through much of the first half, the Eagles scored twice in the final 96 seconds to go up by 14 points and, with journeyman of all journeyman, Josh Johnson filling in for Purdy, the 49ers had no chance of rallying for a victory. This one went in the books as a 31-7 victory that will leave experts and gamblers across the country wondering what to make of it.
The Eagles and their fans will not and should not feel sorry for the 49ers and their fans because Philly fans — even if they still bathe in the memories of Nick Foles and the Philly Special — remember too many times when the Eagles were on the wrong side of one of these ill-fated games.
The oldest among them remember Dick Vermeil bringing an uptight team into the New Orleans Superdome and losing to journeyman Jim Plunkett and the Oakland Raiders in 1981.
The next generation remembers blustery Buddy Ryan building great defenses, ignoring the offense and never winning a playoff game while the rest of the NFC East combined for eight championships in a 14-year span. The 49ers won five times in that time period, too.
If your Eagles fandom started in the Andy Reid era, then you know the pain of three straight NFC Championship losses, including the one that closed the football chapter of Veterans Stadium’s history. Maybe you can even still see Ronde Barber’s pick-six that sealed the outcome. Or maybe you remember the next year when the Carolina Panthers knocked McNabb out of the game and the Eagles lost 14-3.
Or maybe your stomach-gurgling moment came the next year when the Eagles needed 10 fourth-quarter points to tie Tom Brady and the New England Patriots, and McNabb couldn’t catch his breath as he took his team slowly down the field.
Ouch, ouch, ouch.
It was all so painful for so many Eagles players and fans.
Some — but not all — of that pain and the entire Chip Kelly era was erased when Doug Pederson and Foles took the Eagles on an unlikely Super Bowl title five years ago, but the Eagles and their fans still feel like they have a lot of catching up to do, so if this was a gift from the football gods, they’ll say thank you and get ready for the big game in Glendale, Arizona, on Feb. 12.
That said, it was a stunning sequence of events that unfolded late Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles, just as they had the week before against the Giants, opened the game with an impressive touchdown drive that was aided by a missed call by the officials or a heads-up, hurry-up play by Jalen Hurts. It all depends upon your perspective.
The biggest play of the 11-play, 66-yard drive was a 29-yard pass from Hurts to DeVonta Smith. Replays later showed it was not a completion, but the play went unchallenged by 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan and Miles Sanders finished the drive with a 6-yard touchdown run.
Like the Giants the week before, the 49ers responded by moving the football, but on a second-and-six play from the 50, Haason Reddick hit Purdy’s arm as he was about to throw a pass.
Initially, it was ruled an incompletion, but the Eagles challenged that Purdy lost the football before his arm went forward. They won the challenge and the 49ers also lost Purdy to an elbow injury on that play.
San Francisco’s season was resting on the right arm of Johnson, a former Jet and former Giant practice-squad player. Johnson, 36, has been with 13 different teams if you count his practice-squad resume, but started just nine games in 14 years.
This game, or so it seemed, was over.
The 49ers did have a brief glimmer of hope when the Eagles went three straight series on offense without doing much and Christian McCaffrey broke three tackles on his way to an incredible 23-yard touchdown that evened the score at 7-7 late in the first quarter.
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But this afternoon would get worse instead of better for the 49ers.
With the help of three defensive penalties, the Eagles’ offense finally got its act together near the end of the first half and scored on a 14-play drive that ended with another touchdown run by Sanders.
Two plays later, Johnson fumbled the snap from center and Reddick recovered at the San Francisco 30.
Another San Francisco penalty put the ball at the 10 and Boston Scott proved he can score touchdowns against teams other than the Giants, giving the Eagles a 21-7 lead at the half.
More disaster struck for the 49ers at the start of the second half when Johnson was flattened by Ndamukong Suh on a second-down incompletion. Johnson left with a concussion and Purdy returned, but only to handoff the football for the remainder of the game.
Purdy threw just two passes in the second half and truly was Mr. Irrelevant.
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Bob Brookover can be reached at rbrookover@njadvancemedia.com.
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