Eagles go cold in second half as 49ers end their bid to repeat as Super Bowl champs

In the end, the Eagles offense couldn’t rise to the occasion, a shortcoming it had all season long.

With under a minute remaining in the wild-card round Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, Jalen Hurts was tasked with driving down the field and leading a touchdown drive to erase the Eagles’ 23-19 deficit. Upon reaching the 49ers’ 20-yard line, Hurts was sacked and threw three straight incompletions, ending the Eagles’ aspirations of repeating as Super Bowl champions.

There were three lead changes in the fourth quarter at Lincoln Financial Field. The 49ers managed to pull off the win without injured inside linebacker Fred Warner, defensive end Nick Bosa, and tight end George Kittle, who suffered a torn Achilles tendon in the second quarter.

Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ loss to the 49ers:

The Eagles offense followed an all-too-familiar script — it came out strong in the first half, only to disappear at times in the second.

In the first half, Kevin Patullo and Nick Sirianni opted to run early and often to great success. On the second play of the Eagles’ opening drive, Saquon Barkley took a handoff from Hurts in the shotgun, bounced to his right, and scampered upfield for a gain of 29 yards. His run helped set up the Eagles’ first touchdown of the day, a 1-yard run by Dallas Goedert to make it 7-6, 49ers, after a missed Jake Elliott point-after.

Barkley finished the first quarter with nine carries for 48 yards (5.3 yards per carry).

Barkley had an up-and-down showing in the passing game. First, the good. In the second quarter, Hurts had an unblocked defender in his face on second-and-6 from midfield, and dumped the ball off to Barkley, who turned a routine checkdown into a 20-yard gain.

His play eventually led to Goedert’s second touchdown of the game, a 9-yard catch that made it 13-7, Eagles.

Then, the not-so-good. On third-and-3 from the Eagles’ 37-yard line early in the third quarter, Barkley dropped a pass in the open field, causing the Eagles to go three-and-out for a second straight possession.

His woes continued in the second half. After averaging 4.7 yards per carry (71 yards on 15 carries) in the first, Barkley went for 0.8 yards per carry (six carries for 5 yards) in the third quarter.

Patullo and Sirianni seemed to lean conservative in their play calls in the third quarter as they clung to their 13-10 lead. Three plays after Quinyon Mitchell’s first interception of the night in the third quarter, Barkley was stuffed for a loss of a yard by 49ers cornerback Deommodore Lenoir on a second-and-18 zone run.

The Eagles lost nine yards on the four-play drive and punted. On the following possession, still up by three, the Eagles settled for a 41-yard field goal. They had seemingly waved the white flag on third-and-13 with a Hurts 4-yard keeper, appearing content to take the points. However, Sirianni pushed back on the notion that he had grown conservative in the second half.

“I think that’s always the go-to [perception] if it [doesn’t] go the way you want,” Sirianni said. “If it goes the way you want it to go in the first half and then not the second half, I think that’s the go-to of people [thinking] you take your foot off the gas, but we were playing more balanced, got the run game going a little bit, trying to mix our play actions in, trying to get our passes in to create explosives. At the end of the day, we didn’t create enough explosives.”

Barkley was slightly more effective in the fourth quarter, and was able to return after being hobbled by a leg injury after a hard hit that caused him to miss snaps. But at that point, the Eagles were often in catch-up mode due to the 49ers scoring a pair of touchdowns.

Rare drops plagued A.J. Brown. The 28-year-old receiver had three receptions on seven targets for 25 yards. On the Eagles’ final possession, he dropped a third-down pass over the middle of the field, only to be bailed out by Goedert’s conversion on the ensuing fourth down. With the season on the line, Goedert was targeted later in the drive on fourth-and-11 from the 49ers’ 21, but linebacker Eric Kendricks broke up Hurts’ pass.

As a passer, Hurts went 20-for-35 (57.1%) for 168 yards and one touchdown. While the Eagles won the turnover battle, they didn’t win the explosive play battle. Hurts’ longest pass went for 20 yards and Barkley’s longest run was 29, marking the Eagles’ only plays of 20-plus yards.

“I take ownership for not being able to put points on the board,” Hurts said postgame. “It all starts with me and ends with me. And so there’s a sense of a lot there that you can learn from. I think as a team, as a collective group and personally for me as a quarterback, how you see the game, how you feel the game, and ultimately just, ‘OK, how can I find a way to win?’ We weren’t able to do that today.”

Quinyon Mitchell, named to his first All-Pro team on Saturday, stepped up in the second half in an attempt to reinvigorate the Eagles offense.

The 24-year-old cornerback contributed a pair of interceptions, keeping the surging 49ers offense off the field and giving Hurts & Co. an opportunity to put points on the board.

However, the Eagles only mustered a field goal off his picks. On his first interception in the third quarter, Mitchell undercut an erratic play-action pass intended for Skyy Moore, giving the Eagles offense prime field position at their own 48.

They punted after four plays, one of which was a Cam Jurgens holding call on second-and-10.

One series after the 49ers took a 17-16 lead on a fourth-quarter trick play — a 29-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Jauan Jennings to Christian McCaffrey — Mitchell struck again. Again, he undercut Brock Purdy’s pass, this time intended for 49ers tight end Jake Tonges.

The Eagles began the series at their own 38 and managed to move the ball 32 yards on eight plays. But the wind proved problematic in the passing game. Late in the drive, a deep pass intended for Jahan Dotson in the end zone died in the wind, eventually leading the Eagles to settle for a field goal. Elliott made the 33-yard attempt, putting the Eagles up, 19-17, with eight minutes remaining.

Ultimately, Mitchell’s interceptions proved to be missed opportunities for the Eagles offense.

A litany of mistakes crippled the Eagles on both sides of the ball. The Eagles lacked detail, one of Sirianni’s core values, reflected by their seven penalties for 48 yards. The 49ers, conversely, were flagged once for 15 yards.

The Eagles’ mistakes led to 49ers points. Late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles up 19-17, Reed Blankenship was flagged for holding Tonges on second-and-6 just outside the red zone. His transgression wiped away a Jalen Carter sack and gave the 49ers a fresh set of downs at the 20.

The 49ers took advantage of his mistake, as Purdy connected with McCaffrey on a 4-yard touchdown pass to regain the lead, 23-19.

“I should have never held him,” Blankenship said. “I thought I was pretty late. But at the end of the day, I’ve just got to be better doing that and be better doing my job.”

The defense also had breakdowns in coverage. Wide receiver Demarcus Robinson’s 61-yard reception against Mitchell on the second play of the game brought the 49ers into the red zone. Robinson caught a 2-yard play-action pass for a touchdown, also against Mitchell, putting the 49ers up, 7-0.

In the second quarter, Jennings had a 45-yard reception while aligned in the slot, slipping past Cooper DeJean to make the grab. His big play eventually led to points, too, in the form of a 36-yard field goal.

Elliott’s missed extra point was also costly. Had he made it, the Eagles could have played to tie the game with a field goal on their final possession.