One of the most daunting aspects of the Week 13 matchup with the Philadelphia Eagles for the San Francisco 49ers was the prospect of facing a quarterback in Jalen Hurts with the skill set to take advantage of a well-documented weakness for their vaunted defense.

Though last season's NFC Championship Game between the two teams was realistically over as a contest the second Brock Purdy went down with an injury, the 49ers' defensive performance in that game was defined in part by an inability to stop the Eagles' run game and handle the dual threat of Hurts.

It was a continuation of a theme for the 49ers' defense, which even in the Super Bowl season in 2019 had significant issues defending quarterbacks who can do damage with the legs on designed runs and escape the pocket and make plays out of structure.

In the rematch of the title game, however, the 49ers were determined to limit Hurts' impact extending plays and keep him in the pocket.

Said star defensive end Nick Bosa of the approach to defending Hurts: "Our whole mentality was 'we're not trying to set the record on sacks, we're trying to close the pocket and make sure his eyes are on us.'"

That plan was an unqualified success in San Francisco's 42-19 beatdown of the Eagles, as a collective and disciplined effort from the 49er pass rush consistently saw them keep contain and prevent Hurts from escaping the pocket.

The result of the Niners' approach was emphatic. Hurts, per Pro Football Focus, was pressured a massive 46 times, that gaudy number owing to him being forced by a well-organized D-Line and excellent coverage in the secondary to hold the ball for an average of 3.74 seconds, per NextGen Stats, the highest of any quarterback in Week 13.

Hurts still had 298 yards passing, but he was limited to just 20 yards rushing, leading head coach Kyle Shanahan to effusively praise the pass-rush unit for curbing their aggressiveness and producing a crucial effort as the 49ers moved one game back of the Eagles in the race for the one seed in the NFC.

"It goes against everything in those guys’ DNA and their coaches’ DNA. Everything," Shanahan said.

"Those guys want to tee off and go rush the quarterback every play, and they did at times, but you have to know who you’re playing and the style of how that team beats people. And I thought our guys were very disciplined today. As disciplined as we have been, that I can remember, going against a mobile quarterback. 

"He still made a ton of plays like we knew he would, but our guys kept rallying and I know they covered a lot of ground out there."

With games against Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray and Baltimore Ravens star Lamar Jackson still on the schedule, the 49ers won't be so naive as to think they now have a formula to stopping all dual-threat quarterbacks. 

However, they have at least proven to themselves that they can dictate the terms of their matchups with these quarterbacks and restrict the influence of their athletic gifts. Against a team they could well face again in this year's title game, that is a crucial confidence boost for a defense that is excelling at all three levels at exactly the right time.

Grading the 49ers to watch from Week 13 rout of the Eagles

They all deserve tremendous praise.