It happened again, and everyone could see it coming. 

The Eagles' defense had its mistakes, but Quinyon Mitchell came up with two interceptions, and the unit did all it could to hold the game together. 

But the Eagles' offense shut down in the second half, again, and with Philly's back to the wall, it was going to take a miracle for them to suddenly patch together a solid drive late for the comeback. 

There weren't any, and that was it. 

The Eagles' season is over. The repeat dream is over. 

They lost the NFC Wild Card to the 49ers, 23-19, Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field, and now the scrutiny over this team will really kick into overdrive in the coming days. 

Fans will be calling for Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo's jobs in the masses over this, and this might just be it for Jake Elliott and A.J. Brown, the former of which has struggled to make kicks all season and the latter who suddenly couldn't catch a thing in Sunday's biggest spots.  

So much talent wasted. So much frustration from watching week to week, just boiling over into nothing. 

Here's a rundown of how the Eagles sent themselves packing...

Tripped up

The Eagles' headlining defense had an opening series to quickly forget. 

Newly minted All-Pro cornerback Quinyon Mitchell stumbled in coverage on a 2nd and 11, which toppled the dominoes into a 61-yard Demarcus Robinson completion that sent the San Francisco receiver running and following George Kittle blocks downfield after quarterback Brock Purdy got him the pass. 

It was a huge play for the Niners off the bat, which got sequenced with a deflected but still completed 11-yard pass to Christian McCaffrey, and then a floater to Robinson in the end zone for the game's first lead. 

San Francisco struck first, Philly defensive coordinator Vic Fangio up in the box wasn't happy, and right away, the pressure was on the Eagles' volatile offense – particularly the playcalling of head coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo – to answer.

A game of inches

Answer the offense did, by pounding the ball through the run game.

On 2nd down and the Eagles' second play, Saquon Barkley rounded the corner and took off for a 29-yard run to jump straight into Niners territory.

Then, after a first-down completion from Jalen Hurts to A.J. Brown on a comeback route to the right sideline, a series of quick chip runs and passes brought the Eagles in close to set up a 3rd and goal at the San Francisco 1. 

They called their new goal line specialty, not a Tush Push, but a misdirect to Dallas Goedert, who took the handoff and ran across the plane uncontested for the touchdown – just not the tie.

Kicker Jake Elliott pulled the point-after try too far left and missed, leaving the Eagles trailing 7-6. 

It was a point let go that could've proved crucial later, and even worse, it casted doubt over trusting Elliott in a big situation where they would need to make a kick for the rest of the game, in a season where he had already been struggling to a career-worst and future-blurring degree.

Hang tight

Scoring slowed, but on the Eagles' third drive, they got back to trucking the ball forward with the run and quick outlet passes, first with Barkley, and then from mixing in Tank Bigsby's downhill, bulldozing style. 

They chipped their way down to the San Francisco 9, but at a 4th and 2 and in a spot where no one was really sure if you could go to Elliott for the field goal try. 

So the offense stayed out, Hurts rolled right on play action, and hit Goedert sitting in space in the open, who took the pass in and turned in across the goal line for the go-ahead touchdown. 

Initially, a flag to center Cam Jurgens as an ineligible receiver downfield nearly brought the play back, but after the official's review, the penalty was taken back, the touchdown was granted, and Elliott put the PAT through to send the Eagles up 13-7.

Leave it at 3

Another route turned quickly to the inside, this time by Jauan Jennings, caught the Eagles' secondary flatfooted again, and with the Niners cashing in on a big 45-yard gain across the field after just losing Kittle as their star tight to an Achilles inury for the rest of the game. 

But it got left at that. 

The Eagles' defense tightened up, forced an incompletion and then stops of McCaffrey on the run on consecutive plays to hold San Francisco to a successful field goal kick. 

The score stood at 13-10, Eagles, and would hold that way going into the half. 

Hurts tried to dial up a couple of home-run swing passes to A.J. Brown down the field, but Brown couldn't bring either in. Then San Francisco, scrambling to try and tack on a field goal to tie it before the break, couldn't get far enough and ran out of time. 

Purdy tried to scramble and run out of bounds with one second left for a possible kick, but after review of the original out of bounds calls, officials saw that Mitchell knocked the ball out for a fumble before Purdy could take a step out. 

The clock was run off. The Eagles were still holding on, and the ball was coming back to them for the second half. 

But as has been the case with the team so many times this year, the Birds were nowhere close to being in the clear.

Q up something

The Eagles' drive to open up the second half stalled out with a three-and-out.

The Niners took over, and though he was falling under pressure, Purdy kept escaping and finding an out to sustain the San Francisco drive. 

You could feel the momentum swinging, and the Eagles' building struggle to stop it. 

They needed something to happen, or risk things getting out of hand for them quick. 

On a 1st and 10 at the Niners' 46, pressure closed in on Purdy again. He threw a wobbler intended for receiver Skyy Moore, but Mitchell jumped in front of the route to intercept it. 

Mitchell, who had a rough start to Sunday, came back around with a turnover the Eagles needed just in time. 

It could've been a turning point, but then the Eagles' offense fell back into its infuriating signature: A listless three-and-out to punt the ball right back. 

That it was the playoffs wasn't about to change anything about a mess of an offensive scheme that fans have been calling out and criticizing for months.

Lucky to get 3

The Eagles were back in a painfully familiar pattern. 

The defense was making stop after stop and doing everything it could to hold a narrow lead together. 

The offense was doing them no favors. 

The Philly defense forced a three-and-out, and special teams got a gift of a botched punt into the wind that spotted the Eagles at the San Francisco 46. 

The Philly offense did just enough to at least be in field goal range before hitting the inevitable wall built by easily predictable quick passes outside and runs up the middle, and had Elliott right enough this time to be able to kick it through for a 16-10 lead. 

But Sirianni, Patullo, Hurts, the O-line, Barkley, the receivers, everyone in charge of keeping the ball moving and getting points up on the board, they were playing with fire, once again, by operating at a standstill.

They got burned

A trick play sweep for Jennings to pass it over to a wide open McCaffrey downfield. Caught. Touchdown. Yup. 

A flag on the play was on the Eagles and didn't make a difference in the result. The Niners had the lead, 17-16, after a converted PAT early into the fourth quarter. 

And every Eagles fan watching, whether at the stadium or at home on TV or wherever, knew deep down what the situation was.

This offense would have to suddenly wake up and rally back, when it's struggled to so much as even function late into games for the better part of the year.

A break would help.

Q it up again

Quinyon Mitchell gave it to them, with his second interception of the night.

Barkley came up with a few solid runs to get the Eagles in field goal range before a hit behind the ling of scrimmage took his feet out from under him and knocked him straight into a blocking Tyler Steen. 

The Eagles could go no further after that, but Elliott was able to kick through another field goal from 33 yards out for a 19-17 lead. 

Only thing was there were still eight minutes left to get through.

Out to dry

It was eight minutes way too many.

Purdy kept slipping out of trouble and marching the Niners downfield. 

A defensive holding call on Reed Blankenship in the secondary canceled out a Jalen Carter sack and pushed San Francisco up to the edge of the red zone with a reset of the downs. 

Purdy kept shifting around in the backfield just waiting for his opening, and found it when McCaffrey broke free in the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown pass. 

Niners kicker Eddy Pineiro missed the extra point, but the situation was still the same for the Eagles down 23-19 with under three minutes left.

They needed a touchdown. Nothing else would do it. Otherwise, their season is over.

Slipped right through

A 3rd and 5 pass zipped right through A.J. Brown's hands and backed the Eagles into a corner. 

A 4th-down desperation pass went right into Goedert's grip on the next play for 15 yards to keep the Eagles alive for just a bit longer, but their situation still wasn't looking good. 

A couple more chunk completions to DeVonta Smith got them moving again, but then a sack and a Hurts throwaway brought them to a 3rd and 11 at the San Francisco 21. 

Hurts tried to force the ball over the middle to Smith one more time, but it was broken up to bring the Eagles' season down to a 4th and 11. 

They took a timeout to talk it over and pull out their best play....

That's it

But their best play was Hurts trying to jam it through to Goedert in triple coverage over the middle. 

The ball was batted away for a turnover on downs with 40 seconds left. It was checkmate. 

The Eagles were done.

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