Week 13 NFL Takeaways: Not even ‘Big Dom’ can help Eagles stop Deebo, 49ers

Deebo Samuel talked the talk prior to an anticipated Week 13 matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles, and as soon as he and his San Francisco 49ers teammates stepped onto the field Sunday afternoon at Lincoln Financial Field he walked the walk in dominant fashion.

Samuel led the way with 138 total yards and a hat trick of touchdowns in a 42-19 rout of the Eagles in a rematch of last season’s NFC Championship game, which was famously tainted when Brock Purdy sustained an early injury and exited the game.

Philadelphia will remain the NFL’s lone 10-win team heading into next week but the Eagles were clearly home underdogs for a reason and their Super Bowl odds are worse after sustaining their second loss of the season.

The Eagles were 5-0 when trailing at halftime entering Week 13 while all other teams were a combined 35-129 in those same circumstances yet the 49ers ended that trend. Hurts also had five straight wins when facing a deficit of 10 points or more, which was tied for the longest streak since 1950, but the 49ers ended that one too.

Tensions were high and bad blood was on display in all four quarters.

After Samuel, who publicly called Eagles defensive back James Bradberry “trash” and this week doubled down that he didn’t regret anything he said about his rivals, opened the second half with a 12-yard rushing touchdown, things reached a boiling point when 49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw was disqualified midway through the third quarter for his role in a sideline altercation with a popular member of the Eagles staff.

Greenlaw aggressively tackled Eagles receiver Devonta Smith out of bounds before he and Philadelphia’s longtime chief security officer Dom DiSandro got in each other’s faces.

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DiSandro, affectionately known as “Big Dom,” was also kicked out and after receiving a standing ovation from the Philly faithful it seemed to mark a temporary shift in momentum. Several plays later the Eagles marched down the field into a first-and-goal situation. Hurts scored his 12th rushing touchdown of the season on the second of two “tush push” attempts to bring the Eagles to within eight points.

A few minutes after that, however, Samuel put his team back up two scores thanks to a 48-yard touchdown pass from Purdy. Then Jauan Jennings had an 18-yard touchdown reception early in the fourth with a disrespectful stiff arm helping him shrug off a would-be tackler. Samuel later took a screen pass from Purdy 48 yards to the house to add an exclamation mark to Sunday’s performance.

In addition to Samuel’s two long touchdowns, San Francisco cracked the goal line on all four of their trips to the red zone. Purdy threw for 314 yards and four touchdowns and the defence consistently bottled up Philadelphia’s playmakers so that it didn’t matter how much time Hurts had in the pocket.

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What Week 14 showed is the 49ers, when healthy, are clearly be the best team in the NFC if not the entire league.

The NFC’s other consensus top-tier contender, Dallas, opened Week 13 with a Thursday win over Seattle. Dak Prescott and his Cowboys will have the momentum heading into next week’s anticipated Sunday night primetime matchup with the Eagles.

DOLPHINS DYNAMIC DUO EXPLOIT ANOTHER MISMATCH

Tua Tagolvailoa, Tyreek Hill and the fan-friendly Dolphins offence tend to take advantage of the frequent mismatches they’re presented by opposing secondaries and we saw another example of that in Miami’s blowout win over Washington.

Tagolvailoa had a perfect passer rating in the opening half largely thanks to a pair of long touchdown passes to Hill who finished the day with 157 yards to stay on pace to exceed 2,000 yards this season.

Hill and his teammates celebrated his first score with a choreographed rollercoaster ride celebration, which is somewhat fitting of this Dolphins season so far with plenty of thrills to go with ups in the form of wins like this one over the Commanders and downs like their losses to Buffalo, Philadelphia and Kansas City.

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Miami is now 9-3 with back-to-back home games upcoming against the Titans and Jets, so they’ll be expected to be 11-3 before ending the regular season against Dallas, Baltimore and Buffalo again.

“Everyone is locked in,” Tagovailoa told reporters after the game via The Associated Press. “Everyone knows that we can do something special this year, and no one on our team is trying to waste that opportunity.”

HORRIBLE DAY FOR STEELERS FANS

Pittsburgh Steelers fans are down in the dumps after a disastrous Sunday afternoon loss to the Arizona Cardinals – and if they attended the game in person, they’re possibly still cold and wet after suffering through a lengthy weather delay.

Despite having a 7-4 record and being 6.5-point favourites at home against a 2-10 team, Pittsburgh had difficulty generating any momentum and starting quarterback Kenny Pickett left in the first quarter with an ankle injury in a 24-10 loss. Pickett might only have one career game with multiple touchdown passes but the fact is he gives the Steelers the best chance to win. He’s expected to miss an extended period of time.

Backup Mitch Trubisky had one of his typical statlines in relief, going 11 of 17 for 117 yards and one garbage-time touchdown pass to Diontae Johnson who spent way too long celebrating in the end zone with the game out of hand.

Also, Defensive Player of the Year contender T.J. Watt was seen in pain on the sidelines after going down in the fourth with what appeared to be an ankle or foot injury on a play where it looked like he was held yet no penalty was called.

“The NFL has something going against me, so I don’t want to talk any more negatively toward them,” a frustrated Watt told reporters after the game. “I don’t know what I did, but I’ll leave it at that.”

Pittsburgh still sits in an AFC playoff spot and currently holds tiebreakers over the Colts and Texans – both improved to 7-5 after emotional wins – but there isn’t much reason for long-term optimism after a performance like that one.

Pouring salt in the wound was the fact Arizona was led to victory by former Steelers running back James Conner who finished the game with 105 yards and two rushing touchdowns.

Pittsburgh plays New England in the Week 14 Thursday matchup. The Patriots lost 6-0 to the Chargers on Sunday – they’ve scored 13 total points in their last three games – so that one should be a doozy.

COSTLY WIN FOR TEXANS

C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans moved another step closer to making an improbable playoff appearance this season, however the team’s exciting win over Denver was slightly tarnished by news that standout rookie wide receiver Tank Dell sustained a broken fibula in the opening quarter and his season is over.

Houston’s leading receiver Nico Collins picked up the slack (that’s putting it lightly) with Dell out, finishing the game with a career high 191 yards plus a touchdown. Collins alone outgained the entire Broncos team in the opening half and is now nine yards short of his first 1,000-yard campaign. He will likely face tighter coverage and potential double teams in the weeks to come since Dell, a big-play threat with touchdowns in seven different games this season, opened up so much space for other Texans to get involved.

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