49ers vs. Eagles: 5 stats that decide NFC Championship game
By Peter Panacy
49ers vs. Eagles stat No. 2: Penalties and yards
Championship teams don’t beat themselves.
As cliche as that sounds, it’s pretty true. Rare are the Super Bowl-winning teams that finish a year toward the top of the penalty department.
Tack that argument onto the fact that both the 49ers and Eagles are so closely matched, and the outcome could simply come down to which team winds up making fewer mistakes, especially those that result in a pesky yellow flag.
Both the Niners and Eagles finished the regular season in the middle of the pack, in terms of penalties against, with 100 and 95 such infractions, respectively. San Francisco was penalized for a total of 788 yards, while Philly was hit for 707 yards.
Across the rest of the yellow-flag board, both teams are still notably similar.
That means the outcome of the NFC Championship game could be decided upon something as simple as a defensive pass-interference call or a late hit on a quarterback.
Needless to say, both squads will be hoping for a clean game from their own side and a bad one from the other.