Brandon Aiyuk takes ill-timed shot at Eagles defense ahead of Super Bowl
The San Francisco 49ers lost to the Eagles in the NFC title game. One of the Niners’ top wide receivers had something to say about Philadelphia’s defense.
It’s hard to win a football game when you run just 45 offensive plays, gain 164 total yards and have the football for just 22:34. That’s what happened to the San Francisco 49ers in their 31-7 setback to the Eagles at Philadelphia in the NFC Championship Game.
Niners’ wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk had a breakout season in 2022. He totaled 78 catches for a team-best 1,015 receiving yards and found the end zone eight times. He also caught six passes for 109 yards in three postseason contests. Apparently, he wasn’t very impressed with the NFC East champions Birds, who ranked just behind the 49ers in fewest total yards allowed per game this season.
Brandon Aiyuk on the Eagles: “I don’t know fully about that defense. They talk about them being a good defense — I’m not sure. I think this Kansas City pass game will expose what we thought we were going to expose before some unfortunate circumstances. They got extremely lucky.”
— Grant Cohn (@grantcohn) February 5, 2023
Brandon Aiyuk takes shot at Eagles defense
Perhaps the “extremely lucky” part that the emerging Aiyuk is referring to is the unfortunate fact that the 49ers’ saw rookie Brock Purdy (elbow) and journeyman Josh Johnson (concussion), the club’s third and fourth different quarterbacks to play for the team in 2022, knocked out of the game with injuries.
Purdy would return in the second half but was obviously limited when it came to throwing the football. Aiyuk finished the game with one catch for 10 yards. San Francisco finished the game with just 21 pass plays.
Still, to overlook what the Eagles’ defense has done this past season is somewhat mystifying. The Birds finished with 70 sacks during the regular season and added eight more quarterback traps in the playoff wins over the Giants (5) and 49ers (3). In 19 total outings this season, Nick Sirianni’s squad totaled 31 takeaways.
No team in the league allowed fewer passing yards per game than Philadelphia, although Jonathan Gannon’s unit wound up in the middle of the pack when it came to stopping the run.
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Of course, the Eagles are no longer the 49ers and Aiyuk’s problem this season. Those concerns belong to Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs’ offense this Sunday in Super Bowl LVII.