The Philadelphia Eagles are locked in a battle to start their Super Bowl defense, leading the San Francisco 49ers, 13-10, at halftime of their wild card matchup.
The 49ers opened the scoring with a quick scoring drive fueled by Demarcus Robinson’s 58-yard catch. He also capped the drive with a 5-yard catch. He beat All-Pro cornerback Quinyon Mitchell on both plays, and Brock Purdy put it on the money both times.
Philadelphia’s much-maligned offense responded with a 10-play, 63-yard touchdown drive of its own, with Dallas Goedert taking an end-around in for a 1-yard score.
The Eagles’ next drive ended with a turnover on downs, but the defense forced a three-and-out. Philadelphia then embarked on yet another lengthy scoring drive, this time 16 plays and 94 yards across nine minutes — the team’s longest postseason touchdown drive by time of possession on record (since 2001). It was again Goedert finding the end zone, this time on a 9-yard pass from Jalen Hurts.
Goedert joined Ricky Watters as the only Eagles with a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in the same playoff game.
The 49ers have hung tough, though, even amid another devastating injury: George Kittle is out for the game after being carted off with an Achilles injury. On the very next play, Purdy ripped a 45-yard pass to Jauan Jennings, leading to a field goal. The visitors even had one more chance right before halftime, but poor clock management prevented them from getting close enough for a field goal attempt: Purdy fumbled the ball out of bounds with one second left, leading to a run off and the clock expiring.
Philadelphia will get the ball out of halftime looking to extend its lead; stick with us for analysis below!