Understandably, the 49ers felt like their chance to return to the Super Bowl had passed them by last season after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game.
The dream never truly came true after San Francisco, which had won seven straight games with Brock Purdy as its starter, lost the young quarterback to a torn UCL the team suffered in the first series of the title game.
It was Eagles pass rusher Haason Reddick who delivered the devastating blow to Purdy with a strip sack that all but sealed Philadelphia’s berth in Super Bowl LVII – and left the 49ers wondering “What if?” in the off season. Reddick listened to the 49ers’ thoughts on the game throughout the spring and summer, and the linebacker urged San Francisco to walk the talk when the team returns to Lincoln Financial Field in Week 13.
“Talk is cheap,” Reddick told KYW Newsradio’s Dave Uram after the Eagles’ overtime win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday in Philadelphia. “You can come back to the Linc. Last year there was a lot of booing, a lot of crying, a lot of what ifs, a lot of this, a lot of that.”
“You get a chance to come back here, clarify the matter and prove it again.”
The 49ers enter Week 13 on a three-game winning streak and are certainly looking to prove themselves as the NFC’s best team. But the Eagles have a firm grip on the conference’s No. 1 seed at 10-1. San Francisco, 8-3 and No. 2, needs a win at Philadelphia if it wants a chance at a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the playoffs.
And as Reddick mentioned, the 49ers can show that the final postseason meeting would have been very different if Purdy had been under center for a full four quarters — something they’ve been vocal about in the offseason.
“Our defense did what they were supposed to do and I feel like if Brock had been there at quarterback and the way our offense was moving, I don’t think it would have been close if that made sense,” Deebo Samuel said , 49ers wide receiver, to Adam Schein on “Mad Dog Sports Radio” during Super Bowl week.
“It’s not sour grapes at all, it’s just what I see every day. I’m not being salty at all, I’m just stating the facts.”
And Samuel’s star colleague Brandon Aiyuk also expressed his thoughts. In an interview with TheSFNiners in February, he said that after the 49ers’ loss to the Eagles, he didn’t like seeing pundits talking about how Philadelphia had “the best team in football” all season.
“But that’s what makes it so bad about this game because we feel like everything we’ve done from that point on … just what we’ve done to the league, how we’ve just played on tape, I firmly believe that “That we frightened the opponent,” said Aiyuk. “When they had to face San Francisco, the 49ers, we felt like it was our time.
“We felt it was time and for this to be canceled is disgusting.”
Now, in 2023, the 49ers feel like it could very well be that time again. And next Sunday in Philadelphia, they’ll get a chance to prove it.
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