Down Goes Philly! Down Goes Philly! Cardinals Defeat Eagles 21-17
By Scott Allen
The Arizona Cardinals pulled off an improbable win today over the Philadelphia Eagles 21-17 in Philadelphia. That’s right, IN Philadelphia. It is the first road win in 12 road games for the Cardinals. That’s all you really need to know. It doesn’t matter how it really happened. However, I will still talk about it. You have to because not everything went right for the Cardinals, but there were sure a lot of things that went wrong with the Eagles. For what it’s worth, John Skelton played ok, however Kevin Kolb is still the starting quarterback and there should be no controversy.
Skelton went 21-40 for 315 yards, 3 TD’s, 2 INT. Not a bad line, but those interceptions were both bad ones, one of which led to a return for touchdown. I don’t know what Skelton was looking at on either one of those plays? Doesn’t matter, it was a win and although it appeared he was losing a bit of his composure early in the fourth, he regained what he did lose and led them on another long 80 plus yard drive. All three touchdown drives were over 80 yards. That’s impressive and I think for the first time this season, give a little credit to the coaching staff. Great play calling. Oh, and let’s talk about the defense.
The defense brought it all day long. They left Eagles quarterback Michael Vick scrambling quite a bit. Vick went 16-34 for 128 yards, 0 TD and 2 INT. Vick was intercepted on a great play by defensive lineman Calais Campbell who jumped up and just corralled a ball in his crib. He is turning into a monster on that line, something we’ve been waiting for. The other interception was a last gasp play late by A.J. Jefferson. The Cards defense bent at time but never broke. Vick had 79 yards rushing but much of that was because of the coverage down field by the Cards secondary. LeSean McCoy had 81 yards and a TD. However McCoy really wasn’t much of a factor. He had one long run but the Eagles never looked to have a plan to feed him the ball time after time.
The Eagles looked out of sorts all day, although their defense also played pretty well. They are a fast bunch who clearly is ahead of their offense right now. They could do only so much. The Cards won the time of possession battle, had more first downs, and looked like they wanted it more. It seemed as if it wasn’t going to happen for awhile with a few calls going against them. They had a Richard Marshall interception taken away and it was probably the right call. Patrick Peterson had a 41-yard punt return called back for a block in the back. So there were a couple of killers, but the Cards didn’t let the calls get to them.
The one guy who continues to amaze is Larry Fitzgerald. He proved today once again that there is a reason why he getting paid what the Cards are paying him. He had seven catches for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Clearly his best game of the season, which included a beautiful catch down to the one yard line on the winning drive, eventually a touchdown catch by Early Doucet.
Cardinals are now 3-6 and realistically done when in connection with any playoff talk, however, they keep themselves mathematically in the conversation for now. If the San Francisco 49’ers lose today and then the Cards go into Frisco next Sunday and do what they did today, things get a little interesting again. They would be three games back with six to play. Still a long shot, but it has to give you confidence for the rest of the season. A lot would have to happen, however anything is possible in this year’s NFL. Great win today Birdgang!
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