Eagles Hope Resting Regulars In Season Finale Won’t Be Costly

At least the sports talk world will have plenty of fodder before the Eagles begin their postseason defense of their Super Bowl title.

The Eagles will no doubt be roundly criticized for resting the majority of their starters in their 24-17 season finale loss to the visiting Washington Commanders.

That gave the Eagles the No. 3 seed in the NFC. Had they won the game, they would have earned the No. 2 seed since the Chicago Bears lost their season finale to Detroit.

Instead, Chicago is the No. 2 seed.

There appears to be little doubt that the Eagles could have beaten the Commanders with their starters. Commanders 39-year-old QB Josh Johnson entered the game with a 1-9 career record as a starter.

Make it 2-9 now.

While it says here that the Eagles should have tried to win the game, there is no doubt that they have the capability to return to the Super Bowl and win it.

The NFC and AFC are about as wide-open as we can remember.

Here are the NFC matchups

(1)Seattle (first-round bye)

(7) Green Bay at (2) Chicago, Saturday 8 p.m. (Amazon Prime)

(6) San Francisco at (3) Eagles, Sunday, 4:30 p.m. (Fox)

(5) LA Rams at (4) Carolina, Saturday, 4:30 p.m. (Fox)

Here are the AFC matchups

(1)Denver (first-round bye)

(7) LA Chargers at (2) New England, Sunday 8 p.m. (NBC)

(6) Buffalo at (3) Jacksonville, Sunday, 1 p.m. (CBS)

(5) Houston at (4) Pittsburgh, Monday, 8 p.m. ESPN/ABC

The Eagles are 3-3 against these playoff teams, with wins over Green Bay, the LA Rams and Buffalo and losses to Chicago, Denver and the LA Chargers.

Again, the Eagles can beat any team in the playoffs and lose to any as well.

Last year they won the Super Bowl as the No. 2 NFC seed, but now the Eagles have to worry about their first-round matchup against San Francisco.

The 49ers laid a serious egg in their final regular season game, losing 13-3 to Seattle. The 49ers would have earned the top seed with a win, and ended as the No. 6 seed.

Before the loss, San Francisco has won six in a row, but it wasn’t against a murder’s row schedule. The six wins were over Arizona, Carolina, Cleveland, Tennessee, Indianapolis and Chicago.

The offense was humming in a 42-38 win over Chicago, but against a highly touted defense like Seattle, the 49ers could barely move the ball.

San Francisco QB Brock Purdy is coming off a clunker. Against Seattle, he completed 19-of-27 passes for just 127 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. In fairness, he was running for his life. Even though Purdy was sacked just three times, he faced constant pressure.

The 49ers played without left tackle Trent Williams and if he doesn’t play against the Eagles, then the defensive line should have a field day.

Even though Williams is 37-years-old, he remains one of the best tackles in the game. This year he earned his 12^th Pro Bowl berth and when he finally retires, his next destination will be Canton, Ohio and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Even with Williams, the 49ers banged up defense will have a major challenge in stopping the Eagles. That’s not because the Eagles offense has been sizzling, but San Francisco can’t mount a pass rush and struggles to stop the run.

One final note: Temperature game time should be in the low 40’s. Purdy hasn’t played well in colder weather so we’ll see if that will be a factor.

The Eagles should be able to score on the 49ers and contain Purdy enough to win the game.

Either way, we see it Eagles 24, San Francisco 18.