PHILADELPHIA – The 10 wins suddenly don’t seem as important as the two losses for the Philadelphia Eagles, the second being delivered by the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
For the fifth straight game, the Eagles trailed at halftime. This time, they weren’t able to come back and dropped a 42-19 decision to the Niners at Lincoln Financial Field.
The road to the Super Bowl very well could run through San Francisco, a scary proposition for the Eagles and any other team with designs on spending early February in Las Vegas, considering how thoroughly the Niners beat up Philly.
They knocked Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts into concussion protocol, though he returned after backup Marcus Mariotta entered for a few snaps.
The 49ers proved that despite being 9-3, a game behind the Eagles at 10-2, they are the best team in the NFC as December opened. They beat the Dallas Cowboys convincingly and now the Eagles.
San Francisco running back/receiver Deebo Samuel, who has been talking trash all offseason after losing to Philly in the NFC title game, backed up his words with action.
He scored three touchdowns, each electric – a 12-yard scamper off a sweep and a 48-yard catch-and-run, with some help from Eagles linebacker Nick Morrow who missed a tackle in the open field, and a 36-yard catch-and-run to account for the final score.
Samuel finished with four catches for 116 yards and three runs for 22 yards.
Philly dominated the first quarter but could only lead 6-0 after settling for field goals despite entering the red zone.
They had converted their previous 12 trips inside the 20 into touchdowns. The Eagles piled up 124 yards of offense and held the 49ers to -6 yards of total offense in the opening quarter and without a first down.
By halftime, San Francisco had righted the ship and led 14-6.
After going three-and-out on its first two possessions, the 49ers scored a touchdown on its next six possessions to turn this one into a rout.
It took a while for the expected physical fireworks to begin between two teams that have no love for each other.
It finally boiled over with 9:19 to play in the third quarter when San Francisco linebacker Dre Greenlaw body-slammed DeVonta Smith after a 13-yard catch for a first down.
The slam happened in front of the Eagles’ bench, where Dom DiSandro, the head of Eagles security and head coach Nick Sirianni’s shadow in public spaces, was spotted pushing Greenlaw, who then took a swing at DiSandro.
Greenlaw and DiSandro were ejected.
The trade-off benefited the Eagles since Greenlaw is San Fran’s leading tackler with 79 and was the leading tackler for the 49ers in this game with seven when he went out.
Philly used that advantage when they got a tush-push 1-yard touchdown plunge to cut the 49ers’ lead to 21-13 with 6:51 to go after the penalty set them up inside the red zone.
The Eagles are in jeopardy now of losing two straight unless they can go to Dallas next week and find a way to snap the Cowboys’ 14-game home-winning streak. The Cowboys will have had 10 days of rest before taking the field next week.
Meanwhile, that game may only matter to determine the outcome of the NFC East, where the Eagles are trying to snap a long drought of back-to-back division winners. The last time it happened was 2003-04 when Philly did it.
It may not matter, other than bragging rights, because the 49ers look unstoppable.
Related: San Francisco 49ers dominate Philadelphia Eagles with a final score of 42-19
