PHILADELPHIA (AP) -It would’ve been easier for the Philadelphia Eagles to overlook San Francisco before the 49ers beat the defending conference champions convincingly on a national stage.
A day after the Eagles (9-4) moved into first place in the NFC East with a 45-38 victory over the New York Giants, the 49ers (6-7) dismantled the Arizona Cardinals 24-9 in a prime-time matchup. That performance got everyone’s attention in Philadelphia.
“I think all of our players and coaches saw the Monday night game and how they came in and really dominated in that game,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said. “If you look at the scores of their games, with the exception of the Atlanta game, they’ve either won the games or they’ve been within a touchdown or field goal of winning the games. They’re a good football team is what I’m saying. Our guys are going to prepare for a tough football team coming in here and we’ll be ready.”
oking to move one step closer to clinching their sixth division title this decade. They have an emotional game next week against Denver that will feature Brian Dawkins’ return to Philadelphia. But they better be careful against San Francisco, which is desperate to keep its slim playoff hopes alive.
“For all of us, the communication aspect is just making sure that everyone is truly focused just on this particular game and not focusing on anything later down the road, not getting caught up in the hoopla or the what-ifs or whatever it may be,” Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said. “With the situation in which we are in, I think that kind of overweighs what they did on Monday night for what we can do for ourselves. We’re in a great position if we just take care of business and do what we have to do.”
The 49ers need to win out and get some help to sneak into the playoffs. They’re two wins away from ending a franchise-worst streak of six straight losing seasons. Coach Mike Singletary inspired his team to play one of its best all-around games this season, preventing the Cardinals from wrapping up the NFC West title on San Francisco’s turf.
Now the 49ers will have to step it up again in a hostile environment after traveling across the country. They’ve lost five straight road games since knocking off Arizona in Week 1.
n the plane, and play a very good football team that really seems to be coming together at the right time,” Singletary said. “They’ve got all the momentum and all the reasons to play and play well. For us, we’re just swinging. We’re just fighting. We’re just scratching. We have to put our best game together in order to go out there and try to win the football game.”
The key for San Francisco will be running back Frank Gore. He had 167 yards rushing against Arizona after gaining just 117 combined in the previous three games. Gore is averaging 5.2 yards per carry and closing in on his fourth straight 1,000-yard season. But he’s facing a defense that hasn’t allowed a 100-yard rusher in 23 straight games, including playoffs.
“Gore is such a physical runner and also he has great vision and great feet, good lateral vision,” Reid said. “He’s proven that over the years. He’s a heck of a player.”
Despite Gore’s running ability, the 49ers are predominantly a passing team. The Niners have thrown on nearly 62 percent of their plays this season. Tight end Vernon Davis is quarterback Alex Smith’s favorite target. Rookie receiver Michael Crabtree is a dangerous threat.
have to do a good job of trying to contain those two guys. I think we’ll be OK if we come out ready to go.”
Philadelphia’s defense had trouble with fundamentals against the Giants. Sloppy tackling led to two big scoring plays, but McNabb and the offense bailed out the defense.
“You have to keep everything in perspective when you look at that,” Mikell said. “We didn’t play great, but if you take away the two missed tackles on the long balls we were still right in there. We just had some bad execution on a couple things, but we got a lot of turnovers, which I think helped us win the game, and we got some key stops when we needed to. We’re going to go back to work on the stuff … the tackling and all of that. We’re not going to panic and run for the hills.”
Add A Comment