Jalen Hurts Stats: 168 Yards, One Touchdown as Efficiency, Not Effort, Ends the Eagles’ Title Run

Jalen Hurts finished 20-of-35 for 168 yards and one touchdown as the Philadelphia Eagles lost to the San Francisco 49ers, 23-19, in the NFC Wild Card round on January 11, 2026. Nineteen first downs, 140 rushing yards and almost eleven extra minutes of possession bought nothing, because a football game is decided by what a possession produces, not by how long it lasts.

The numbers explain the upset better than any postgame quote. San Francisco ran 58 plays for 361 yards, a shade over six yards a snap. Philadelphia ran 72 plays for 307 yards, 4.3 a snap. The 49ers needed one drive inside the final ten minutes to win. The Eagles needed a fourth-down conversion at the 21-yard line with 43 seconds left and got three straight incompletions.

The Player Profile: Jalen Hurts

Before the box score, context matters, because a January stat line reads differently when you know the career underneath it.

The Lead: How the Game Was Actually Won

San Francisco at Philadelphia, NFC Wild Card, Lincoln Financial Field, 69,879 in the building, 46 degrees with a 22 mph wind off the Delaware River. The Eagles entered 11-6 as the No. 3 seed and defending Super Bowl champion. The 49ers entered 12-5 as the No. 6 seed, already down George Kittle to a torn Achilles suffered during this very game.

Philadelphia won the time-of-possession battle 35:39 to 24:21 and won total first downs 19-20 in all but one category, then lost the only metric that pays out. The 49ers scored 23 points on 58 plays. The Eagles scored 19 on 72. San Francisco generated 2.33 points per possession; Philadelphia managed 1.90 across 10 drives. Brock Purdy left with 18-of-31 for 262 yards and two interceptions, and none of that mattered, because both picks were followed by a punt, while Demarcus Robinson, Christian McCaffrey and a fake punt disguised as a pass play did the damage.

Match Overview Table

Core Match Statistics Overview

Passing Efficiency Decides the Day

• Jalen Hurts averaged 4.8 net yards per attempt against a 49ers defense that finished the season allowing the seventh-best passing grade in the league. He was pressured on only 4 of 36 dropbacks (2.7%) and sacked once. Protection was never the problem.
• Purdy gained 9.1 yards per attempt before sacks, with an average depth of target of 7.7 yards. Hurts’ average intended air yards were higher at 8.9 per attempt, but only 81 of those yards reached a receiver.

Explosive Passing Gap

• Completions of 20 or more yards: San Francisco 3 for 135, Philadelphia 1 for 20. Two of those three went for touchdowns.
• Yards after catch per completion: 49ers 8.6, Eagles 4.4. Saquon Barkley and Jalen Hurts combined for 80 yards after contact on the ground, which is the football equivalent of grinding. It moves chains. It rarely erases a 2.33-versus-1.90 points-per-possession gap.

Ball Control Is Not the Same as Scoring

• The Eagles converted 5 of 16 third downs, 31.3%. The 49ers converted 6 of 11, 54.5%. Philadelphia needed a third down every 3.8 plays; San Francisco every 2.9.
• Philadelphia committed 7 penalties for 48 yards to one flag for 15 yards. Two of them (an offensive holding on Cam Jurgens and a Jahan Dotson false start) directly flipped third-and-manageable into third-and-long.

Short Field, No Touchdown

• Quinyon Mitchell picked off Purdy twice and forced a fumble. The Eagles scored three points off both interceptions.
• Philadelphia’s four punts in the second half came from fields starting at its own 30, own 48, own 35 and own 38.

Period-by-Period Analysis

• First half truth: both offenses scored on their opening possession of the game and both defenses took over from there. The Eagles ran 10 plays in the final 6:08 of the second quarter and punted.
• Third quarter trap: San Francisco started two drives at its own 5 and its own 20 after short punts, survived both, and still led going into the final twelve minutes because Philadelphia could not cash the takeaways in.
• Fourth quarter difference: the 49ers had 2.33 points per possession on the afternoon. They scored on their last two drives, and the Eagles ended the game on downs from nine yards outside field goal range after converting a fourth-and-5 with a 15-yard catch by Goedert one play earlier.

Philadelphia Eagles Player Statistics

Jalen Hurts, Quarterback

Hurts turned the ball over zero times and was hurried or hit on four of 36 dropbacks, which removes the usual excuse. What the line hides is the middle: 7 completions produced 88 of his 168 yards, and the other 17 completions averaged 6.9 yards apiece, so the Eagles kept the ball without moving it forward at a playoff-winning rate.

Saquon Barkley, Running Back

Barkley carried the load 26 times against a front that had rotated freely all season and took the Eagles to within a field goal range of a touchdown in the second half. His 4.1 yards per carry was the floor of what a run-first attack needs when its passing game averages 4.8 a try.

DeVonta Smith, Wide Receiver

Smith was the only reliable option on a night when Philadelphia needed one, catching 8 of 11 targets against an average depth of target of 3.5 yards for the whole group. Virtually everything he produced came after the catch, which flatters the receiver and exposes the throw plan.

Dallas Goedert, Tight End

Two touchdowns from a tight end, one on the ground off a 3rd-and-1 and one on a 4th-and-2 throw, is the cleanest illustration of an offense that trusted its most physical option in the highest-pressure spots. Goedert’s 4th-and-2 catch at the 9 was one of only three fourth-down conversions Philadelphia won all afternoon.

San Francisco 49ers Player Statistics

Brock Purdy, Quarterback

Purdy won this game while making mistakes, because his checkdown-to-scamble ladder converted 4 of his 9 designed scrambles into first downs. He also was sacked once in 32 team dropbacks.

Christian McCaffrey, Running Back

McCaffrey’s four rushing first downs came in the second half as San Francisco milked a lead, and his two touchdown grabs, from 29 yards and 4 yards out, took a combined 16 plays off the clock. A back with 48 rushing yards on 15 carries still won a playoff game because he is a receiver who lines up in the backfield.

Demarcus Robinson, Wide Receiver

Robinson stepped into a volume the 49ers’ receiving corps had to find somewhere else and turned the game’s first play action into a 61-yard gain that set the tone. His 13.3 average depth of target was the only place Philadelphia’s secondary could be beaten.

Jauan Jennings, Wide Receiver

The fake that went 29 yards to McCaffrey at 14:52 of the fourth quarter came on the possession right after a three-play San Francisco punt, the sort of free play a defense pays for once it stops guessing. Jennings also caught a 45-yarder, meaning the Eagles spent the whole night covering a tight end who was playing wide receiver and a wide receiver who was throwing passes.

Statistical Leaders Summary Box Score

Why the 49ers Won

Points Per Possession, Not Yards

San Francisco’s offense generated 4.00 expected points on the afternoon; Philadelphia’s lost 4.00. That is the entire game, told in one line, and it happened even though the 49ers turned the ball over twice and the Eagles never did.

Depth of Target and Yards After Catch

• Purdy threw an average of 7.7 air yards per attempt and got 7.4 yards after the catch per completion. Hurts aimed deeper at 8.9 yards per attempt and turned only 81 of those 313 intended air yards into completions, a 25.9% conversion rate to San Francisco’s 53.6%.
• The 49ers’ three completions of 20 or more yards produced 135 yards and two touchdowns. The Eagles’ one produced 20 yards and no points.

Discipline and Field Position Hygiene

• One penalty, 15 yards, for a team running 58 plays. Seven penalties, 48 yards, for a team running 72.
• Braden Mann out-punted Thomas Morstead 52.0 to 34.3 yards per punt and Britain Covey averaged 30.5 yards on two kickoff returns, so Philadelphia won the special-teams yardage battle and still lost. Two of San Francisco’s final three scoring drives began at its own 5 and own 20 after punts.

Fourth-Down Restraint

The Eagles went 3-for-5 on fourth down, including a conversion at the San Francisco 9 in the second quarter that turned into a touchdown. The 49ers attempted zero fourth downs. Kyle Shanahan never put the game in that spot, and San Francisco’s only real mistake on the final drive was Piñeiro’s missed extra point, which left a two-point cushion instead of three.

Why the Eagles Lost

Heavy Dependence on the Run Game in a Play-Action League

This is not one bad afternoon. Philadelphia ran the ball 50.0% of the plays in this game, a number that would have been unremarkable in 2005 and is an outlier in a league where a team has to threaten 20-plus yards to keep a playoff defense honest.

Three Turnovers Without Points

The Eagles created two interceptions and a forced fumble in a seven-minute window and came away with a 41-yard field goal. On the next series after the second pick, they faced 1st-and-20 from their own 25 because a false start and a holding call did the damage before the defense could be paid.

No Closing Plan

Down 23-19 with 2:54 left and two timeouts, Philadelphia ran nine plays, converted one fourth down for 15 yards, reached the 20, then took a sack and threw three incompletions. A 45-yard attempt was live with a full timeout remaining. It never got a kick.

Historical Context and Advanced Insights

Head-to-Head Series Breakdown

The two teams did not meet in the 2025 regular season, so the last real data point before this game was the 2023 meeting in Philadelphia.

San Francisco leads the all-time series 22-15-1 and has beaten Philadelphia in three of their last four meetings, two of them at the Linc.

Advanced Statistical Insights

Adjusted net yards per attempt. Take passing yards, subtract sack yards, add 45 for a touchdown and subtract 45 for each interception, then divide by attempts. Hurts lands at 6.1 (168 – 1 + 45 over 35). Purdy lands at 5.4 (262 – 5 + 90 – 90 over 31). Strip the interceptions out and Purdy is at 8.3. The quarterback stat that looks close is only close because Philadelphia never turned it over; the picks cost San Francisco 2.9 yards a throw and they still won.

Expected points per play. San Francisco’s offense posted +4.00 total expected points across 58 plays (+0.069 per play). Philadelphia’s offense posted -4.00 across 72 (-0.056). Multiply the 0.125 per-play swing across the 58 plays San Francisco chose to run and you have roughly the 4-point final margin, which is another way of saying the 49ers played fewer snaps and better ones.

First downs per play. The Eagles needed 3.8 plays per first down. The 49ers needed 2.9. Long, methodical drives look impressive on a possession chart and are actually a tax when a team only has 10 of them.

Yards after contact. Barkley gained 68 of his 106 rushing yards after contact and broke one tackle on 26 carries; the Eagles rushed for 98 yards after contact as a team. San Francisco managed 60 of its 75 that way. Philadelphia won the point-of-attack battle and lost the game, because the 49ers moved the ball at the second level: 163 yards after catch on 19 completions against 87 on 20 for the Eagles.

Pressure rate. Hurts was pressured on 2.7% of dropbacks, his protection among the cleanest in a playoff game all season. Purdy was pressured on 11.4% and still produced 8.9 yards per attempt. That is the single most uncomfortable number in the file for an Eagles defense that ranked fifth in points allowed.

Game Implications and Key Lessons

What This Means for the 49ers

• San Francisco carried a 12-5 season into the divisional round on a roster missing its best tight end and beat a defending champion with a two-touchdown game from a running back who gained 48 rushing yards.
• The win bought one more road game, and it ended the same way it started, with Seattle beating the 49ers 41-6 six days later behind a Rashid Shaheed opening kickoff return. The playoff run was a bonus round, not a window.

What This Means for the Eagles

• An 11-7 season with a first-round exit forced a full offensive reset. Kevin Patullo was dismissed as coordinator and replaced by Sean Mannion, 33, in his first play-calling job; Jeff Stoutland left, Chris Kuper took the offensive line, and Ryan Mahaffey arrived from Green Bay as run game coordinator and tight ends coach. Vic Fangio stayed and kept a defense that allowed 19.1 points a game.
• Jalen Hurts’ standing took the visible hit. Players ranked him No. 56 on the NFL Top 100 for 2026, down 37 spots, and a national league-wide quarterback poll placed him 17th. His 2025 numbers (3,224 pass yards, 25 TD, 6 INT) were efficient and light on volume, which is a combination that gets punished in January.
• Losing A.J. Brown to New England in June left DeVonta Smith, Makai Lemon, Johnny Wilson and Darius Cooper around a quarterback whose team threw 30th in the league in attempts. Sean Mannion’s first assignment is making defenses defend the whole field.

Key Lessons

• Time of possession is a byproduct, not a strategy: eleven extra minutes on the clock, 0.53 points per minute against 0.94.
• A zero-turnover box score still loses if the opponent’s two interceptions buy nothing but punts and you cannot cash your own.
• Going for it on fourth down is only a virtue when it ends in the end zone; 3-for-5 without a touchdown on the last drive changes nothing.
• Volume running needs a deep pass threat to survive the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
• Kickers decide close playoff games: Jake Elliott and Eddy Piñeiro combined for 3-for-5 on extra points, and the 49ers needed all four of the points those two misses cost them.
• Age and scheme stability compound: a 36-year-old right tackle in a possible final season, a first-year coordinator and a rebuilt receiving room spell out a transition year in advance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the Eagles vs 49ers Wild Card game?

San Francisco won, 23-19, in the NFC Wild Card round on January 11, 2026 at Lincoln Financial Field in front of 69,879 fans. The 49ers scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to end Philadelphia’s title defense.

What were Jalen Hurts’ stats in this game?

Hurts completed 20 of 35 passes for 168 yards and one touchdown with no interceptions, adding 5 carries for 14 yards. He was sacked once and pressured on only 4 dropbacks, and his offense went -4.00 expected points across 72 plays.

Who scored the most points in the game?

Christian McCaffrey led all scorers with 12 points on two touchdown receptions (29 yards and 4 yards), plus 48 rushing yards on 15 carries. Dallas Goedert matched him with 12 for Philadelphia on a receiving and a rushing touchdown.

How did Brock Purdy perform?

Purdy went 18-of-31 for 262 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, rating 80.3, and added 9 carries for 24 yards. He was pressured on 11.4% of his dropbacks and still averaged 8.9 net yards per attempt.

Saquon Barkley ran for how many yards?

Barkley rushed 26 times for 106 yards with a long of 29 and caught 3 passes for 25 yards. He gained 68 of his rushing yards after contact and did not score.

Did the Eagles score off their two interceptions?

Only three points. Quinyon Mitchell’s two third-quarter picks produced seven plays and a 41-yard Jake Elliott field goal. The Eagles took a 16-10 lead into the fourth quarter and lost it on a trick play.

What does this loss mean for Jalen Hurts in 2026?

Hurts enters a scheme change under new coordinator Sean Mannion with a rebuilt receiver room, a fresh set of protections for the tush push era, and the No. 56 ranking from his peers to answer. He is under the largest contract in franchise history at roughly $51 million a season.

Conclusion

San Francisco did not out-gain Philadelphia by much and did not out-last it at all. It out-scored it per snap. The 49ers took 58 plays to reach 361 yards and 23 points while the Eagles needed 72 to reach 307 and 19, and every meaningful efficiency metric, yards per play, air yards converted, first downs per play, points per possession, sat on the visitor’s side of the ledger.

Jalen Hurts protected the football, was barely touched and still lost the yardage battle 25.9% to 53.6% on air yards converted, which is what happens when a season built on volume running meets a defense willing to dare you deep. The Eagles’ response is already written in the coaching tree they cleared out that February and the receivers they are asking to stretch a field nobody had to defend in January.