Eagles lose a hard-fought game to the Cardinals 33-26
The Philadelphia Eagles lose a heartbreaker to the Arizona Cardinals 33-26. The Eagles played overall a pretty good game as the Cardinals defense won them the game on the final play. There were some highs and some lows in this game, mostly highs, but lets go over it.
They started this game down 16-0 at the end of the first quarter. The Eagles had a blocked punt, a safety, and it was an awful quarter. Doug Pederson said during his postgame press conference the Eagles “self-destructed” in the first quarter. In the second quarter the Eagles completely bounced back and scored 20 points. Jalen Hurts was the main reason for success. Hurts was phenomenal Sunday night. Here are some of his stats:
24-44
338 passing yards
3 passing TDs
11 carries
63 rushing yards
1 rushing TD
Hurts had a better game than former starting quarterback Carson Wentz had had this season. Hurts was amazing as there is one play that stood out to me that I want to look over. It’s the fourth quarter, it’s 1st and 10 with 35 seconds left in the game, and you’re on your 37 yard line. Jalen Hurts takes the snap. Hurts steps back and starts to look for an open receiver. Linebacker Haason Reddick starts coming at Hurts from the left. Reddick knocks the ball out of Hurts’ hands. The ball is to the left of Hurts. Hurts it picks up quickly as he is scrambling to his left. Two Cardinals players are going in for the sack. As soon as Hurts starts to get tackled he finds tight end Dallas Goedert at the 51 yard line. Hurts throws the ball and completes it for a fourteen yard pass, and it’s a first down. Here’s the play:
This play isn’t just insanely hard to do, that takes an extreme amount of athleticism and skill. Not just any normal person can do that. And Carson Wentz probably would’ve gotten sacked. After the game, Hurts said that he hates losing more than he loves to win. That’s a pretty huge statement! Hurts was also a huge part of the success in Sunday afternoon’s game.
For the offense and the play calling. The offense was great. The reason they didn’t get the job done at the end is because in Hurts’ back-to-back jump balls at the end of the game, the Cardinals defense was all over the ball. There was something I was after the game on the last play that made me angry. Why did Goedert not dive for that ball?
Not only that m=he didn’t dive for it, it didn’t even look like he tried. If I was able to, I would ask Goedert why he didn’t give any effort as soon as possible, because that’s a big concern. Any who, let’s look at some stats from the offense:
29 carries
117 rushing yards
1 rushing TD
Longest run: 17 yards
24 receptions
338 receiving yards
3 receiving TDs
Longest reception: 42 yards
40 targets
These are some pretty nice stats from a struggling offense that isn’t struggling anymore because of one man and one man only, Jalen Hurts.
Ok, the play calling overall was alright but there is one play in particular that made me angry. The Eagles are down by six points as we are closing in on halftime.The Eagles can take one point, or they can go for two. The obvious thing to do is go for the extra point, and Eagles head coach Doug Pederson decides to take the “aggressive” route again and go for two. He decides a hand off up the middle shall do the job. Well, it didn’t work. This is the absolute wrong decision by Pederson and this should’ve been a closer game if Pederson knew what he was going. But, there’s nothing you can do about it now.
Onto the defense. The defense had lost some key players in the secondary due to injuries. Those players include CB Darius Slay (head), Rodney McLeod (ACL), and Avonte Maddox (knee). So it was automatically not such a great start. The defense started out super slow as they were out of place, doing the wrong thing, in the wrong position, etc. And it was ugly! The Cardinals ended the first quarter up by sixteen points. The offense rallied back and had the game within six points at the half. Here are some stats from the d:
66 TOT
48 solo
1 sack
4 TFL
1 QB hit
5 fumbles
4 recovered fumbles
1 INT
Nice stats from a nice game by this defense.
The special teams sort of struggled a little bit. Eagles punter Cameron Johnston came out of the game with a head injury. This is obviously a bad sign. There was a blocked punt, the Cardinals pulled a huge trick play on them, and a bad snap to cost a timely extra point which could’ve given the Eagles the lead. Bad game by the special teams.
Here are the chances the Eagles can make the playoffs. Assuming the Eagles win out:
Washington is able to tie Carolina and lose to Philadelphia.
Giants need 2 losses. Can’t have 1 of win, loss and tie.
Cowboys loss to the Eagles next week puts them behind the Birds.
This was a fantastic game by the Eagles. It was a loss that felt more like a win. Eagles take on the Dallas Cowboys next.
