49ers’ Deebo Samuel pokes bear with comments about Eagles fans
San Francisco 49ers All-Pro offensive weapon Deebo Samuel has poked the figurative bear ahead of this Sunday’s NFC Championship Game at the Philadelphia Eagles.
“We know it’s going to be loud, but no stadium is as loud as ours at the end of the day,” Samuel defiantly said about the Philadelphia crowd on Wednesday, as shared by David Bonilla of 49ers WebZone. “They’re at home, NFC Championship. They’re going to be all riled up. We don’t really too much feed into all that because we put the pads on and just go to work.”
Samuel, rookie quarterback Brock Purdy and the rest of the 49ers haven’t yet had to deal with a hostile road environment during these playoffs. San Francisco held serve at home versus the Seattle Seahawks in the wild-card round and then defeated the Dallas Cowboys 19-12 at Levi’s Stadium this past Sunday.
Purdy has served as San Francisco’s QB1 since Jimmy Garoppolo went down with a broken foot in Week 13 on Dec. 4. Eleven days after Garoppolo’s injury, the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft helped the 49ers earn a 21-13 victory at Seattle’s Lumen Field, widely regarded as one of the league’s loudest venues.
To help prepare Purdy for what he’ll experience at Lincoln Financial Field this weekend, 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan will have his offense practice with pumped-in noise blaring during sessions.
“He knows what to expect. He knows how we do it,” Shanahan said about the 23-year-old. “And we’ll give him reps at it all week, but he got it ready on just a Wednesday when he played Thursday (against Seattle), so it won’t be an issue this week.”
Last midweek, New York Giants players such as defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence and offensive tackle Andrew Thomas openly talked about the “brutal” atmosphere created by Philadelphia fans during games at the Linc. The Eagles smashed the Giants 38-7 and will look to produce a repeat performance in the “City of Brotherly Love” on the final Sunday of January.
