The Philadelphia Eagles and the San Francisco 49ers fielded the league’s top two defenses this season in yards allowed per game, suggesting that Sunday’s N.F.C. championship game may be a low-scoring event.
But with quarterbacks Jalen Hurts and Brock Purdy facing each other, there’s precedent for a high-scoring duel.
In November 2019 in Norman, Okla., Hurts’s Oklahoma Sooners edged out Purdy’s Iowa State Cyclones, 42-41, in a typical Big 12 barnburner.
In that game, Oklahoma built a 42-21 advantage over Iowa State in the third quarter, before Purdy brought the Cyclones roaring back, scoring 20 unanswered fourth-quarter points. Purdy threw a touchdown pass with 24 seconds remaining to pull within one point of Oklahoma, but his pass on the 2-point conversion attempt was intercepted.
Hurts and Purdy combined for 11 touchdowns in that game, and each offense gained more than 450 yards — significantly above the approximately 300 yards per game average that the Eagles and 49ers defenses allowed during the regular season.
“Obviously two different teams, two different times,” Hurts said of the game at a news conference last week.
Purdy agreed. “Different situation and scenario,” he said, calling the 2019 meeting “a fun college game.”
Sunday is shaping up to be a fun N.F.L. game, but with much higher stakes — a trip to the Super Bowl.
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