DeVonta Smith, other Teammates' Big-Game College Experiences Beneficial

While this is San Fran's third trip to the title game in four years, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni believes big-game experience in college is beneficial, too

PHILADELPHIA – Experience. It’s on the side of the 49ers in Sunday’s NFC Championship Game against the Eagles.

Or is it?

More specifically, does big-game experience at the college level factor in?

If it does, and Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni thinks it does, then Jalen Hurts, DeVonta Smith, Landon Dickerson, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Josh Jobe, and Dallas Goedert have to factor into the experience equation along with veteran stalwarts Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox, Jason Kelce, and Lane Johnson.

“Playing in big games, that's why you want guys like that from those types of programs because they have played in the biggest spotlight in college for the biggest prize,” said Sirianni on Friday. “We’ve got a lot of guys on this team, the guys that you mentioned that have done that."

Still, San Francisco will play for the NFC championship for a second straight year and the third time in four years. They are 1-1 in those games, losing to the Rams, 20-17 a season ago but beating the Packers in 2019.

It’s the most dominant stretch from any NFC team since Andy Reid took the Eagles to four in a row in the early 00s.

The Eagles have drafted four players in the last two years who won national titles in college with Smith and Dickerson from Alabama and Davis and Dean from Georgia.

Smith and Dickerson are the bigger contributors, obviously, this season than the Georgia duo, but Davis will see his share of defensive snaps on Sunday.

Look at Smith’s big-game experience from his final season with the Crimson Tide.

In his final three games, the Heisman-winning WR had 34 receptions for 529 yards, and eight touchdowns in wins over Florida in the SEC title game, Notre Dame in the national semifinal, and Ohio State in the national championship game.

Guard Dickerson and CB Jobe, a key special teams contributor as a rookie this season, played their share of big games at ’Bama, as did Hurts, who also played in some big ones at Oklahoma.

DT Davis and LB Dean did it at Georiga, winning a national title in their final seasons before being drafted last spring.

“You can’t let the emotions get to you,” said Davis. “It’s a championship game and we’re playing for something bigger and obviously there’s going to be a lot of emotions, but just understanding not letting the emotions affect you and how you play the game. That’s from my experience from Georgia."

Goedert played in the FCS semifinals in his final year at South Dakota State.

“Every game is Game 7 now, it's win or go home so you just kind of got to leave it all out there because the last thing you want to do is wake up on Monday morning and say, ‘Man, I wish I would have tried a little bit harder on this play. If I were to chase that down maybe I could have made something happen,’ said the Eagles tight end.

“So this time of the year is definitely you just lay it all out there because you know it could be your last time going out there for a very long time."

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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.