5 stats that defined 49ers’ loss to Eagles in NFC Championship

49ers glaring stat vs. Eagles: Time of possession

One of the ways the Niners could have defeated the Eagles would have been to maintain control of the clock while keeping Jalen Hurts and a dangerous Philly offense off the field.

Granted, that would have been tough against an awfully good Philadelphia defense, but that same defense allowed an average of 4.6 rush yards per attempt during the regular season, and one figured that would feed right into what Kyle Shanahan would want to do.

Brock Purdy’s injury changed everything, though, and San Francisco could never get much of a ground attack going.

As such, there were far too many failed third-down tries (six out of eight third-down attempts), and that led to the Eagles dominating the time-of-possession battle.

The difference? A whopping 37:26 to 22:34, almost a two-to-one ratio.

The 49ers wouldn’t have had a chance if time of possession edged heavily in Philly’s favor, and that turned out to be the case.