The Philadelphia Eagles travel across the country this week to face the San Francisco 49ers on “Sunday Night Football.” The Eagles are still searching for their first win after a 23-23 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals last week.

The 49ers are coming off a win against the New York Giants despite missing several key starters and they’ll get back tight end George Kittle and wide receiver Deebo Samuel back this week.

We sat down with The Niners Wire to ask Kyle Madson six questions about Sunday’s game.

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1. The 49ers are probably the one team in the NFL that can relate to the Eagles injury woes.  Can you give a breakdown of your injury report?  How has Kyle Shanahan been able to navigate it so smoothly?

Okay, bear with me because this is a lot. Starting center Weston Richburg and their top reserve defensive end, Ronald Blair, are on the Physically Unable to Perform list with knee injuries they suffered last season. Cornerback Richard Sherman has been on Injured Reserve since sustaining a calf injury in Week 1 vs. the Cardinals. Defensive end Nick Bosa and starting defensive tackle Solomon Thomas are both on season-ending IR with knee injuries. Quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is out with an ankle injury. Raheem Mostert is out with a knee sprain. Tight end Jordan Reed (knee) and starting defensive end Dee Ford (back) both went on IR prior to Week 4. Running back Tevin Coleman is on IR with a knee sprain he suffered in Week 2. Starting cornerback Emmanuel Moseley is out with a concussion. Top reserve cornerback  Ahkello Witherspoon is down with a hamstring issue. Starting linebacker Dre Greenlaw will be out Sunday with a quad injury. I think that’s all of it. Wide receiver Deebo Samuel and tight end George Kittle are both back this week, which is good news for San Francisco.  Shanahan and the coaching staff have navigated this by putting players in spots to succeed and not trying to make backups do things the starters do. It’s also helped they’ve faced the Jets and Giants the last two weeks, but they’re a deep roster with a lot of talent outside the starting spots.

2. Jimmy Garoppolo has been ruled out again.  What are some of the positives that Nick Mullens brings against the Eagles on Sunday night?

Mullens is extremely smart, poised, and knows Shanahan’s offense inside and out. He rarely makes a bad decision and does a nice job of taking what the defense gives him. His arm strength is pretty average, but he doesn’t try to make any throws he’s incapable of making. Shanahan is a good play designer and the 49ers have a ton of athletes who can generate yards after the catch. They just need a quarterback to put the ball on them in space — and Mullens can do that.

3.  Deebo Samuel is back and with Eagles fans suffering over J.J. Arcega-Whiteside’s lack of production, what does your 2019 second-round pick bring to the table as a pass catcher and rusher?

His nickname fits his playing style. He’s a bully. Samuel was limited to shorter routes and quick throws early on in his career, but he proved effective in all three levels of the passing game as his rookie season went on. He’s a dynamite route runner, has good hands, and is flat out nasty after the catch. He parlays that after-the-catch ability into a ton of yards on jet sweeps as well. Once Samuel gets the corner he’s very tough to bring down. There’s an Anquan Boldin quality to his game that makes him an exceptionally valuable piece of the 49ers’ receiving corps.

4. The Eagles know a thing or two about tight ends with Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert on the roster, but George Kittle is a different monster.  What separates him from Kelce and Ertz?  What’s his ceiling as a tight end?

There are two things that Kittle does better than any tight end in the league. He’s an outstanding and willing run blocker who can take on most defensive ends by himself. He loves moving bodies around in the run game. Then there’s the after-the-catch ability. Kittle isn’t the best route runner of the top TEs, and he’s not awesome in contested catch situations, but he is almost impossible to tackle once he’s rolling downhill. Shanahan schemes a lot of yards for Kittle, but he does a ton of the work after the catch on his own, and it’s what makes him so dangerous for opposing defenses.

5. What makes Kyle Shanahan such a masterful play-caller?

His ability to stray from tendencies and generate deception through personnel groupings. The 49ers have a number of players capable of lining up at multiple spots, which means teams can’t key on one player or one play type out of any particular personnel package or formation. Add in all the pre-play window dressing and play-action looks with those versatile offensive weapons and it’s exceedingly difficult for defenses to sift through the noise to find where the ball is or where it’s going. San Francisco is excellent on first down, which gets them ahead of the sticks early and really opens their entire playbook on second and third downs to maximize the deception he wants to create.

Who Wins and why?

I think San Francisco gets the victory because of the way they’ve been able to overcome injuries. They’ve been able to dominate a couple of games while Philadelphia has, for the most part, struggled. This won’t be a rollover game like the 49ers had against the Giants though. I expect Fletcher Cox to have a huge game against a shoddy 49ers interior offensive line and for Mullens to struggle some because of it. Still, there should be enough quick throws available to Kittle, Samuel, the running backs, and rookie WR Brandon Aiyuk to create some chunk plays. The 49ers defense should have a good game plan for Carson Wentz and their banged-up offense though, and their receiving corps will have trouble taking advantage of a beat-up San Francisco secondary.

49ers 27, Eagles 23