The San Francisco 49ers had their hearts broken by the Philadelphia Eagles last season in the NFC Championship game, but the Niners got a degree of redemption this season. Entering their Week 13 matchup, many felt that it could be a preview of this season’s NFC Championship game.
That will not be the case as the Eagles lost that game to San Francisco and proceeded to lose five of their next six games including Monday night’s abysmal 32-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Wild Card round of the playoffs.
It seems like ever since Dre Greenlaw had his infamous altercation with “Big Dom” on the Philly sideline, things were never the same for the Eagles after that.
49ers broke the Eagles in Week 13, Philadelphia never recovered
The 49ers went on to dominate the Eagles for the rest of that game and the Eagles could not recapture their earlier success for the rest of the season.
This is probably satisfying for both the Niners' players and their fans. There was a feeling that the 49ers were robbed of a chance to truly compete against the Eagles in the NFC Championship game last season because of the injury to Brock Purdy.
There is no way of knowing whether the 49ers would have won the game if Purdy had not been injured, especially since the Eagles had a much better defense last year.
But 49ers fans can at least feel good about the fact that their 42-19 domination of the Eagles this season sent them on their path to an embarrassing collapse and a one-and-done playoff appearance.
The 49ers seemed to expose all of the weaknesses that existed on an Eagles team that was 10-1 entering their matchup, but had shown some cracks in the foundation by barely scraping by in some close contests against lesser opponents.
Yet, the 49ers will not truly feel redemption unless they are able to win their next three games and accomplish their ultimate goal. That will have to start with a victory against the red hot Jordan Love and the Green Bay Packers this Saturday in Santa Clara.