The Eagles have once again fallen victim to America’s sweetheart. The sports world ways needs a feel-good story and this season it’s once again coming from the Bay. The 49ers have matched the Eagles’ hot start of 5-0 which has led to media and fans to debate which team is better.
Both teams are built very similarly and while the 31-7 victory in last January’s NFC championship game says differently, I’m here to break down which team truly has the advantage over the other. Let’s take a look at different measuring sticks.
The Offense: Advantage who?
The 49ers have outscored opposing teams by a very impressive 99 points while the Eagles have only outscored their opponents by 37 points. This stat doesn’t tell the full story though.
The Eagles have faced the Patriots, Vikings, Bucs, Commanders and the Rams. Of those teams, only one of them is in the top 10 of the fewest points allowed. While the Eagles have struggled to find their footing on offense, they have somehow managed to avoid any upsets thus far.
As for the Niners, they have faced the Rams, Steelers, Giants, Cardinals and the Cowboys. Of those teams, only the Cowboys had a respectable defense that San Fran obliterated on Sunday Night Football.
The true difference between both offenses is that the 49ers did not witness a change in staff over the offseason as the Eagles did. Philly lost their OC Shane Steichen to the Colts and promoted Brian Johnson to take his place. Johnson has been under the microscope due to the team’s terrible red zone offense and poor play-calling.
San Francisco has the advantage in this regard, for now. Philadelphia’s’ offense is too talented to keep caged throughout the entire season and for them to not be playing their best ball now is more so a good thing. The 49ers are playing their best ball now which begs the question if they can sustain this level of play for an entire season.
Both offenses matchup well on paper but the difference will be the QBs. Jalen Hurts has shown that he can lead his team to a win even when things are not working in their favor while Brock Purdy has yet to be tested which isn’t a comfortable place to be if I’m a 49ers fan. Look what happened when he was tested against Philly last year. For now, advantage the Niners.
The Defense: Advantage who?
The 49ers did an extremely impressive job of shutting down the Cowboys but weren’t they on a downward spiral anyways?! The 49ers defense has done well in holding their opponents to less than 20 points in four of their first five games. The Rams were the only team to score more than 20 points against them but that was in week 2. But if we’re being honest, did you expect the Steelers, Giants, and Cardinals to score against them?
As for the Eagles, the defense experienced the same turnover that the offense did in their staff. They lost Jonathan Gannon to the Cardinals and brought in an external hire in Sean Desai. Desai has had questionable moments throughout the first five games of his Eagles tenure.
This was directly impacted by the amount of injuries that the defense has sustained thus far. The Eagles have had a rotating door at the safety, corner, and linebacker positions. They lost Avonte Maddox for the season, Nakobe Dean for four weeks, James Bradberry for a game, Justin Evans is on IR, Sydney Brown has been dealing with a hamstring injury, Fletcher Cox for a game, and now Darius Slay and Jalen Carter are out this week due to new injuries.
With all of that turnover, Desai has still been very impressive. He held the Rams to only 81 total yards in the second half and completely shut down Kupp in the second half as well, holding him to only 23 yards on two receptions. Desai’s defense buckled down when they needed to the most and his ability to adjust on the fly spoke volumes to how great this unit can be this season once they’re fully healthy.
The 49ers have been equally impressive as they have been extremely disruptive against opposing offenses. They have 8 interceptions and 13 sacks on the season to go with 58 pressures. The Eagles have 2 interceptions but have 15 sacks and 65 pressures on the season so far. The Niners have a clear advantage with their secondary but football is won in the trenches and no one is nastier than Philly upfront.
Advantage: No one at the moment. Both defenses have been equally impressive but with Philadelphia picking up as of late, it would be a crime to consider the 49ers the better unit.
Who’s the better team?! Eagles or 49ers?!
Both teams are undefeated. Both have an impressive coaching staff and roster but how much does the QB matter? It matters the most if you ask me. Hurts is shaking off the rust while
Purdy is soaring and has not faced a regular season loss as of yet. Jalen Hurts has shown what he can do in crucial moments and has helped his team while still dealing with the new system.
Brock Purdy has two game-winning drives tied to his career so far and none of them came from this season. Last season, he led his team to a game-winning drive against the Raiders and then the Cowboys in the playoffs.
Jalen Hurts has 3 fourth-quarter comebacks and 5 total game-winning drives on his resume over the last three seasons. While Purdy hasn’t lost a regular season game as of yet, Jalen Hurts has only lost one so far in 20+ games. It’s fair to say that Hurts is more battle-tested than Purdy and I will ask you this one question, with the game on the line would you rather have the ball in Brock’s hands or Jalen’s hands?
Philadelphia doesn’t need to be America’s sweetheart. That isn’t what pushes this team. They just want to win and they don’t care how they win. It can be ugly, pretty, or gut-wrenching, it doesn’t matter. They’re scrappy, they’re intelligent, and they know what it takes to win. Plus, they’re the defending NFC Champions, if that isn’t enough to earn your respect then I’m here to tell you that they still don’t care if you like them or not.
AP Photo/Matt Rourke
