Steve Young was unimpressed by the Philadelphia Eagles’ performance against the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.
On Wednesday, the renowned former San Francisco quarterback told KNBR’s Tom Tolbert and Adam Copeland that he watched the 49ers’ 42-19 thrashing of the Eagles and was underwhelmed with the reigning NFC champions.
“Toward the end of the third quarter, I thought, ‘What pretenders these guys were,'” Young told me. “That defense was suffocating last year.” It isn’t. They’ve lost some linebackers. They clearly didn’t have the pursuit, they didn’t have — they don’t have it. I’m not sure if they’ll be able to get it back. I’m sure they were exhausted as well.
“[The 49ers] are very excellent. I understand. But it simply felt like a phony situation.”
The Week 13 game at Lincoln Financial Field between the 49ers and Eagles pitted the NFC’s top two seeds against each other as San Francisco sought vengeance for its conference title loss to Philadelphia previous season.
Following months of nasty talk in the aftermath of the 49ers loss, Sunday’s rematch was expected to be a contentious affair. Instead, the Eagles came up short. While Young is correct that Philadelphia was missing certain players and playing on little rest, the Hall of Famer did not see an Eagles team that deserved to be in the top-of-the-league discussion.
“You’re talking about top of the league,” Young explained. “You’re talking about three or four teams that can go the distance… at home, in those big moments.” Those important games that will define a season. They were pretenders on Sunday.”
And as for the Eagles, well, just ask Young.
