49ers’ Trent Williams said Eagles fans ‘turn on their team pretty quick’
Birds fans leaving the Linc early during the team’s 42-19 loss to the Niners didn’t go unnoticed.
The Eagles are known for having one of the most passionate and raucous crowds in the NFL. But some of the 49ers players said after Sunday’s loss that it’s easy to take the Linc crowd out of the game.
The Birds lost, 42-19, on Sunday. After a dominant first quarter on defense from the Eagles and a few successful offensive drives that stalled in the red zone, the 49ers took over the game in the second quarter.
“One thing that I vividly remember from my years in Washington is that that crowd, although they are loud and they are hostile, one thing about them is they do turn on the team pretty quick,” Niners offensive tackle Trent Williams said on KNBR. “My message to my guys was work in the noise early, and it will be quiet late. Third, fourth quarter come around, you start seeing guys try to beat the traffic. When you go into Philly, that’s the only way to plan.
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“It’s similar to Seattle. You’ve got to be able to work in the noise early, and if you make the plays you’re supposed to make, you take the crowd out of it pretty quick. Unlike Philly, Seattle won’t boo their players before halftime. Philly, they got a short attention span and those guys, they’ve only got a few quarters to impress. If they don’t, you’re going to start to hear the boo birds early. I was pleased when I started to hear them, and I knew we were turning it into our home stadium, slowly but surely.”
Before Sunday, the Eagles had put together four consecutive comeback wins, including two at home against the Cowboys and Buffalo Bills.
49ers linebacker Fred Warner, who before the game said he wished his team hadn’t done so much trash talking after its NFC title game loss, spoke on his podcast, “The Warner House,” and said he thought the Eagles crowd had juice during warmups. Warner has a pregame tradition, which he admitted he stole from Tom Brady, in which he runs to the other side of the field, opens his arms wide, and yells at the crowd. Warner said he got flipped off by Birds fans in the crowd before the game.
“They do a great job of getting the other team riled up,” Warner said on the podcast.
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But he too said he noticed the Linc empty out earlier than he expected after the Niners started to take control of the game.
“The Philly fans were pretty sad at the end of that game. Our players were having fun with them toward the end of that game,” Warner said on his podcast. “They headed home. It was a cold, rainy game. Not ideal for the fans.”
Neither is a 23-point loss.