The Eagles are one win away from returning to the Super Bowl and they’ll face a familiar foe in the NFC Championship game when the San Francisco 49ers head to Lincoln Financial Field next Sunday at 3:00 pm.
Philadelphia (14-3) defeated the New York Giants 38-7 on Saturday to clinch a spot in the title game and then watched on Sunday evening, as the Niners (13-4) defeated the Cowboys 19-12 at Levi’s Stadium.
The two teams last met in Week 2 of the 2021 regular season, with San Francisco defeating Philadelphia 17-11 as Jimmy Garoppolo threw one touchdown pass and ran in for another score.
All-Pro quarterback Jalen Hurts had an uneven performance in the loss, completing just 12 of 23 passes for 190 yards. He rushed for 82 yards, including a 1-yard TD in the fourth quarter.
In that matchup from last season, Nick Bosa had two sacks and San Francisco’s defense shut down Philadelphia was dominant against Atlanta in a 32-6 season-opening win.
Both teams are far different from that Week 2 matchup and the Eagles are much more explosive on offense after the addition of A.J. Brown.
With preparation set to begin, we’re looking at ten early stats to know for the NFC Championship Game.
1
36
San Franciso has 36 postseason wins and Sunday’s win tied with Dallas, the Green Bay Packers, and Pittsburgh Steelers for second most all time.
Only New England with 37, has more.
2
98
San Francisco’s dominant defense allowed just 98 explosive plays in the regular season, which tied for the fourth-fewest in the NFL according to TruMedia.
The Eagles’ offense led by Jalen Hurts finished second in the NFL with 80 explosive plays, trailing only the Kansas City Chiefs.
3
42-41
Before the NFL stardom, Hurts’ Oklahoma Sooners defeated Purdy’s Iowa State Cyclones 42-41 in 2019.
On that day of Big 12 action, Both quarterbacks accounted for more than 330 yards of total offense and five total touchdowns.
4
114.98
The 49ers’ defense leads the NFL in expected points added with 114.98, which measures how effective a defense is to decrease an opponent’s likelihood of scoring each play according to TruMedia.
5
Pressure burst pipes
The Eagles are the NFL’s sack masters of 2022, but on an individual basis, only Micah Parsons had more pressures than Nick Bosa’s 90 on the seasons.
According to PFF, Bosa is the most efficient edge rusher in football.
6
Eagles run better than you pass
Football Perspective looked at the Eagles’ offense and the machine is so efficient that even when Philadelphia focuses on the running game, they still average more yards per play than their opponents do through the air.
Philadelphia is tied for 2nd in the NFL in rushing yards and leads the NFL in rushing first downs. The Eagles are also averaging 4.87 yards per carry, good enough for 5th best. Meanwhile, Philadelphia’s pass defense has been phenomenal. Even ignoring the NFL-best 15 interceptions (and NFL-best 3.4% interception rate), Eagles opponents are averaging just 4.80 net yards per pass attempt, the top rate in the league.
7
34 times
The San Francisco 49ers are 19-14-1 against the Eagles all-time, and 3-3 since 2010.
8
30.5
The Philadelphia Eagles will run your team out of the building with Jalen Hurts under center, but the 49ers are the one team constructed that can cause a logjam.
The Eagles' weighted rushing DVOA is now 30.5% if you remove the Minshew games.
49ers were No. 2 in run defense DVOA this year at -23.6%.
Strength vs. strength.
— Aaron Schatz 🏈 (@FO_ASchatz) January 23, 2023
9
112
Room 112, is where the players dwell, and Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell just joined some franchise greats with his rushing performance.
Kenny Gainwell is the first #Eagles RB to have 100+ rushing yards in a playoff game since Brian Westbrook#FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/TD1uMMZgNH
— JAKIB Sports (@JAKIBSports) January 23, 2023
10
25+
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has completed 50% of his passes 25+ yards or more (20-of-40), for 798 yards, 10 touchdowns, 1 interception, and a 125.0 quarterback rating.
Those numbers give Hurts the most touchdowns and the highest passer rating in the NFL when attempting passes over 25+ yards. His NFC Championship opponent, the 49ers allows a 41% rate on passes of 25+ yards (16-of-39), for 687 yards, five touchdowns, two interceptions, and a 106.6 rating allowed, which puts San Francisco in the bottom five.
