The 49ers have shaken off some historically awful injury luck and are now on a two-game winning streak. The Philadelphia Eagles, meanwhile, are a mess and have yet to win a game this season.
Care to guess which team playing at Levi’s Stadium this Sunday is in last place and which one is a half-game out of first place?
You’ve been conditioned to expect the bizarre this year, so of course you know the answer.
Yes, the defending NFC champion 49ers are sharing the cellar in the stacked NFC West with the Rams and Cardinals at 2-1, a game behind the unbeaten Seahawks in the league’s toughest division.
Meanwhile, life in the NFC East hasn’t been too shabby this season for the sloppy Eagles, whose myriad of mistakes cost them some dignity in their locker room but not much ground in the division. They’re 0-2-1 — and nearly in first-place, where Dallas and Washington sit at 1-2 — the after Sunday’s tie with the Bengals that left their coach questioning their football IQ.
“I told ’em in the locker room after the game that we weren’t a very smart football team today,” Pederson said after a 23-23 tie against Cincinnati. “Eleven penalties. Came at crucial times. … We’re just not a smart football team right now and that’s on me and we’ll get that fixed.”
If they don’t, Bill Callahan’s 2003 Raiders have a dumbed-down legacy they’d sure love to unload on the Eagles.
* * *
Here’s a closer look at the 49ers’ first primetime game of the season:
GAME ESSENTIALS: 49ers (2-1) vs. Eagles (0-2-1) at Levi’s Stadium, Sunday at 5:20 p.m. on NBC-TV (Ch. 3). ODDS: 49ers -6.5.
THREE REASONS FOR 49ERS’ OPTIMISM:
Eagles are feeling their pain
The injuries for the Eagles may be piling up, but they’ve still got a ways to go to match the 49ers, who were without 10 starters in last Sunday’s victory over the Giants. Philadelphia, which lost first-round receiver Jalen Reagor and left guard Isaac Seumalo a week ago, lost two more key players against the Bengals. Both tight end Dallas Goedert and cornerback Avonte Maddox will miss multiple weeks with ankle injuries Sunday. Goedert’s injury is a fractured left ankle, but the team believes he could still return later this year. Starting wideout DeSean Jackson also left the game when he tweaked his hamstring in the first half. The injuries left the Eagles with an ex-college quarterback (Greg Ward) as their top receiver, and just four healthy cornerbacks on their active roster as of Monday. So what, says the Eagles head coach. “Nobody said this business would be easy. No one said coaching would be easy and playing would be easy,” Pederson told reporters Monday. “We signed up for it and we’re gonna coach our players, and coach the ones that are healthy.”
Pass protection issues
At the risk of blaming performance on injuries, the Eagles’ offensive line has been decimated with three starters out and its highest-profile lineman struggling badly. All-Pro Jason Peters, the 38-year-old who moved from right tackle to his old left tackle spot when Andre Dillard (torn biceps) was lost for the season, has struggled mightily in two of the Eagles’ three games. After allowing just three sacks last year, Peters gave up two against the Bengals and it could have easily been at least a couple more. The Eagles’ line, long a strength, is ranked just 29th in pass protection as a unit while allowing 3.7 sacks per game. One bright spot has been the return of Lane Johnson from injury. He didn’t allow a single pressure in 43 pass-blocking efforts against the Bengals — a week ago his replacements allowed six pressures and a sack.
Mistake-ridden opponent
The Eagles have contributed mightily to their own demise with an NFL-leading eight turnovers and a league-worst minus-7 turnover differential through three games. A big part of those giveaways have come courtesy of Carson Wentz, who’s thrown a league-high six interceptions. Penalties, Pederson’s pet peeve, have steadily increased for the Eagles. They’ve gone from three against Washington, five against the Rams and then 11 against the Bengals.
THREE REASONS FOR 49ERS’ PESSIMISM:
Eagles defense flying high
The 49ers will have their hands full trying to keep either Nick Mullens or Jimmy Garoppolo protected this week. Philadelphia is coming off an 8-sack and 18 quarterback-hit performance against Bengals rookie Joe Burrow. Joe Mixon, the Bengals’ star running back from Freedom High in Oakley, was held to 49 yards rushing. The Eagles’ defensive line, led by Fletcher Cox and 11-year vet Brandon Graham, is easily their most talented unit. Cox has more pressures than any other interior lineman except Aaron Donald over the last two years. The Eagles’ front was ranked No. 2 by Pro Football Focus coming into the season and have produced 12 sacks, good for fourth in the league. The consistent pressure up front has enabled Philly to allow the eighth-fewest passing yardage.
Homecoming game for local stars
Now that they’re in the NFL, Sunday will qualify as The Big Game for former Stanford star Zach Ertz and ex-Cal star DeSean Jackson. Richard Rodgers, another former Cal Bear whose father played a key role in “The Play” at Berkeley, is Ertz’s backup and is also looking forward to returning to the Bay. Ertz, the onetime Monte Vista High phenom, is coming off a seven-catch, 70-yard performance against Cincinnati. The three-time Pro Bowler figures to be Wentz’s most frequent target with Goedert sidelined. Jackson, who played just 28 snaps last week, is expected to be able to play against the 49ers. Ertz and Jackson both lost their only appearances at Levi’s, while Rodgers caught a TD in a Packers 2015 victory in his only game in Santa Clara.
A rested Miles Sanders
Running back Miles Sanders, the Eagles’ top offensive player, ran well while carrying the ball 16 times and averaging 8 yards per rush in the first half. But he mysteriously had just two more carries against the Bengals after halftime. Pederson said Sanders, who had a hamstring injury during camp, was fatigued Sunday. Still, Sanders wound up with 95 yards rushing for the second straight game. The second-year back from Penn State also caught four passes. It stands to reason Sanders will be more equipped to take on a bigger workload this week.
PROBABLE DIFFERENCE-MAKER: Carson Wentz.
Just 15 months after signing a four-year, $128 million contract extension, Wentz is having to cash in on his history as a solid quarterback just to hold onto his job. After struggling for the third straight game, Wentz is the NFL’s lowest-rated quarterback. His 63.9 passing grade is the second-worst — behind Kyle Allen — in the NFL since Week 7 last year. The famously impatience Eagles fan base is already clamoring for Wentz to be benched in favor of Jalen Hurts, a second-round pick out of Oklahoma. Pederson, though, told 94WIP radio in Philadelphia that’s out of the question. “No, you don’t go there. That’s a knee-jerk reaction,” he said. Not all of Wentz’s struggles, of course, are of his doing. He had two talented receivers (Jackson, Reagor) and a tight end (Goedert) out. Wentz showed flashes last Sunday even while going just 29-of-47 for 225 yards with a TD and two interceptions. He delivered the game-tying score when he ran it in from 7 yards out with 21 seconds left in overtime. If the Eagles are to have a shot Sunday, Wentz will need to play a lot more like the guy Philadelphia thought he was when it chose to keep him over Super Bowl LII MVP Nick Foles two years ago.
