The Arizona Cardinals head into their Week 5 matchup against the Eagles with an opportunity to snag a winning record for the first time in 2022.
The Arizona Cardinals finally scored a convincing win last weekend against the Carolina Panthers. Now, they get an opportunity to beat the league’s best team in the Philadelphia Eagles. And while the Eagles look unstoppable, they do have some weaknesses.
Fortunately, the Cardinals can counter a few of those weaknesses with some strengths. If they can do this, you can expect a massive upset from the hometown team this weekend. Here are three big advantages the Cardinals have for Week 5.
1 – Arizona Cardinals running game
Running back James Conner struggled over the 2022 season’s first three weeks, averaging just 3.0 yards per carry and 90 rushing yards. Last week, the Cardinals shared the rock and got Eno Benjamin and Darrel Williams more involved.
The result? A more effective Conner and a better running game all around. With the Eagles rushing defense allowing 5.0 yards per carry, the Cardinals can melt them this week.
2 – Kyler Murray’s mobility
The Eagles might just have the best pass rush in football, pacing the league with 16 sacks while they rank third in quarterback pressures at 32.2%. However, look at who they faced, and it may tell you another story: Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins, Carson Wentz, and Trevor Lawrence.
Not exactly your average dual threat quarterback. If head coach Kliff Kingsbury realizes his best chance to win is to let Murray move around in the pocket, he can counter the Eagles dangerous pass rush and render it ineffective.
3 – Cardinals defense vs. Eagles offense
While the Eagles seemingly have a hot offense, two of the four teams they faced have allowed 141 and 107 points on the season, respectively, ranking between 32nd and 29th in the league. And while the Arizona Cardinals rank 28th with 103 points allowed, 44 of them came in Week 1.
Since then, the Cardinals allowed just 18.6 points per game on defense. And when you really break things down, they allowed 64 of those points in their first six quarters of the season, meaning they allowed just 39 over their previous 10, or 3.9 points per quarter.
This shows us that the Cardinals defense is better than they look on paper, and it also shows that the Eagles have not always faced great defenses this year. They also went scoreless in five of their last eight quarters, further showing that Jalen Hurts and co. are not as good as many think. Instead, they score in spurts.
They scored 44 of their previous 53 points in just two of those last eight quarters. If the Cardinals defense can stop the Eagles offense when the latter has a seemingly hot quarter, they are winning this football game.
(Statistics provided by Pro-Football-Reference)