Exactly 1,078 days had passed since the Philadelphia Eagles crushed the San Francisco 49ers in the 2023 NFC Championship game, but given the results of their 2025 NFC Wild Card rematch, it’s safe to say that they never forgot that day. With a final score of 23-19, the 49ers have officially exacted their revenge against Philadelphia by bouncing the defending champions in the opening round of the postseason.
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The Bay Area’s QB1, Brock Purdy, was able to produce 262 passing yards and two touchdowns on just 18 completions. While he did manage to also throw a pair of interceptions during the contest, it was still readily apparent throughout most of it that the 49ers had the edge at signal caller, which is exactly what the four-time Super Bowl champion himself, Terry Bradshaw, predicted during his Fox Sports broadcast.
“Once again folks, I’m the only one with any guts. One word? 49ers,” Bradshaw scoffed at the camera. Although, much like everything else, his prediction didn’t come quite as easily as it had sounded.
Thanks to a successful 33-yard field goal try, the Eagles’ Jake Elliot was able to give his flock a 19-17 lead with eight minutes left in the game. The late-fourth quarter deficit immediately began to conjure up images of the past for San Francisco, who has been let down more often than not in recent postseasons.
From there, however, Purdy would decide to bite down on his mouth piece and orchestrate what will likely be regarded as the best drive of his career. In total, the 49ers needed just 10 plays and 66 yards to reach the end zone, and they didn’t even incur a single third down until they were well within goal-to-go distance.
A four-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey, his second of the day, would cap things off for the offense, and from there, the defense was able to contain the Eagles’ wide receivers just enough until there was no time left for Jalen Hurts to figure things out. The soon-to-be former Super Bowl MVP finished with 168 passing yards, 14 rushing yards, one passing score, and a QBR of 40.8.
This entire season was filled with sideline confrontations and locker room issues for Philadelphia, and unfortunately, their final outing of the season proved to be no different, as their star wide receiver, A.J. Brown was seen getting into a shouting match with his head coach, Nick Sirianni, during the loss. Simply put, fans can expect the birds to be making some changes this offseason.
As for San Francisco, well, they’ll now have to prepare for this year’s one seed, a Seattle Seahawks team who tied for the best record in all of professional football. That’ll be enough to see the 49ers once again reprise their role as the underdogs, but they won’t be able to survive such costly turnovers against a team of this caliber, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see a much more conservative approach from the 49ers next week.
