The 49ers this season have been anything but great in the second half. Blowing leads to the Bears and Cardinals in weeks 2 and 3 are the highlights of those troubles. They're offense is stagnant, Kaepernick has a hard time handling the play clock and decision-making, and the defense has been banged up for most of this season. The 49ers pulled out the win today, beating the Philadelphia Eagles 26-21 behind the 49ers defense and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio's game plan.
Colin Kaepernick lit up the Eagles for over 200 yards passing and 58 yards rushing. Gore had a monster game with a 55 yard touchdown reception and also had the longest run of the season for him with a run of 28. The 49ers defense held the high-powered Eagles offense to 21 points and also held Nick Foles to 195 yards passing and LeSean McCoy to 17 yards rushing. You read that number right.
"That team has moved the ball and scored a lot of points against just about everybody... Our players played great," said defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.
The 49ers still had some bad mishaps. Colin Kaepernick missed the play clock in the third quarter and it forced Harbaugh to call a timeout, then later in the game, Kaepernick called a timeout on 4th and 2 because the play clock was running down. All the 49ers were trying to do was get the Eagles to jump offside and Kaepernick called a timeout instead of letting the play clock run out. Harbaugh was furious.
The 49ers did pull out a much needed win though. Now at 2-2 on the season, the 49ers have managed to quiet some criticism by the public by defeating the prior 3-0 Eagles.
"Our guys overcame a lot...I thought our team really sucked it up," said Harbaugh. Harbaugh is right, the 49ers did not play a game they should have won. Thankfully for them, neither did the Eagles. The 49ers' hunt for the wild card or division is still in sight but they have a rough rest of the year to go before they can celebrate.