NFL wildcard round-up: 49ers dethrone Eagles with late touchdown
PURDY GOOD WIN: Brock Purdy reacts after throwing a pass for a touchdown. Pic: Steph Chambers/Getty Images.
Brock Purdy threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey with 2:54 left and the San Francisco 49ers ended the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles' season with a 23-19 win in Sunday's wild-card playoff game in Philadelphia.
Purdy passed for 262 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions and McCaffrey finished with 114 yards from scrimmage and two TD catches. Demarcus Robinson caught six passes for 111 yards and a score and San Francisco improved to 8-2 on the road this season.
Jalen Hurts threw for 168 yards and a touchdown and Saquon Barkley ran for 106 yards for the Eagles. Dallas Goedert became the first tight end in NFL playoff history to rush for a touchdown and also caught a TD. It was Philadelphia's first home playoff loss under head coach Nick Sirianni (previously 5-0).
San Francisco, which lost star tight end George Kittle to a torn Achilles in the second quarter, will face the top-seeded Seattle Seahawks for the third time this season after splitting the regular-season series.
Josh Allen battled through head, hand and knee injuries to throw one touchdown and run for two more scores, leading Buffalo over host Jacksonville for its first road playoff victory in 33 years.
Allen led a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives, scoring the game-winner on a 1-yard keeper with 1:04 left. He completed 28 of 35 passes for 273 yards, while Khalil Shakir caught 12 passes for 82 yards, and Brandin Cooks had three receptions for 58 yards, including a 36-yard grab on the game-winning drive. The Bills will travel to face the top-seeded Denver Broncos on Saturday.
Trevor Lawrence threw three touchdowns, two of which gave the Jaguars a lead in the fourth quarter, along with two interceptions on 18-of-30 passing for 207 yards. On the first play of the drive following Buffalo's last score, Lawrence's pass was intercepted by Cole Bishop off a deflection with 54 seconds remaining to finalize the result.
Drake Maye completed 17 of 29 passes for 268 yards and a touchdown and also rushed for a team-high 66 yards in his playoff debut to lead New England to a victory over Los Angeles Chargers in Foxborough, Mass.
The Patriots' defense sacked Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert six times and allowed just 207 yards of offense. New England running back Rhamondre Stevenson caught three passes for 75 yards and rushed for 53 yards on 10 carries. Tight end Hunter Henry scored the game's only touchdown on a 28-yard catch in the fourth quarter.
Herbert completed 19 of 31 passes for 159 yards and also gained 57 of his team's 87 rushing yards but fell to 0-3 in his playoff career. The Patriots will host the winner of Monday night's game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Houston Texans next Sunday.




