Philadelphia 2, Cardinals 0.

Neither St. Louis nor Arizona could get it done, falling respectively to the Phillies and Eagles on consecutive days. Throw in the Union winning 4-0 to claim 1st place in the East, and it was a banner weekend for local sports.

This particular game had Detroit vibes, didn’t it? The Birds went into halftime with a lead, didn’t play a great third quarter, conceded the game-tying score, and then answered with a gritty 17-play, 70-yard drive that took 7:58 off the clock. The defensive response wasn’t exactly amazing, but Zona’s kicker pulled a Shank-o-potamus and that was all she wrote!

No matter how you slice it, this is a good win. It’s hard to out west, slide over a few time zones, and play your third backup at left tackle. Sometimes you aren’t at your best and still find ways to get the job done, which is the hallmark of a special team.

The Birds are 5-0.


 

1) Eagles fans were loud as hell out there in desert. Give yourselves credit. It was noticeable plenty of times on television.

2) Not a fan of the black Cardinals uniforms. They looked like the Falcons out there. Wrong species of bird. Wrong avian breed.

3) First drive, couple of great blocks from Zach Pascal and DeVonta Smith on those tight end screens for Dallas Goedert. The screen game is so simple, yet effective, when you have receivers that commit to blocking in space. They had some hit or miss screen moments later in the game but success early got them on the board at 7-0.

4) How about Kenny Gainwell shoving Jalen Hurts into the end zone? No clue what you call that formation. Triple pistol? Looked like something from the Paul Johnson triple option days of Georgia Southern. I was waiting for a pitch there. They showed this look again in the second quarter with Miles Sanders in Gainwell’s place, then called a timeout, put Goedert behind Hurts, and let him do the shoving instead, like an inverted fullback:

They went to this look twice more in the fourth, Gainwell in there again, and moved the sticks on 3rd and 1 a couple of times. This will be an interesting thing to break down midweek. Hopefully the beats ask about it and Sirianni gives us a decent explanation.

5) Zero clue what Kyler Murray was trying to do on that first pick. It looked like there was a seam there and the ball was just woefully underthrown. He kinda stunk early and was slow to get started.

6) Have you ever seen Kyle Scott and Kliff Kingsbury in the same room?

7) Hurts’ best throw of the game? Sliding left, setting his feet, and hitting that 3rd and 13 is a candidate. I liked the 2nd and 8 in the third quarter when he floated one over the linebacker to Goedert. The third choice I’d say the big 3rd down to completion to Goedert near the end of the game. It wasn’t a tough pass, per se, but he had pressure coming from his left and stayed in the pocket to deliver.

8) Hurts’ worst throw? The almost-interception for sure. Looks like he just didn’t see Jalen Thompson there. Can’t believe he dropped that. Other that that, can’t think of anything he missed badly. Probably could have done a better job reading those pressures, but he did enough in this game, especially with his feet, to get the W.

9) I don’t recall seeing orbit motion in the first four games, but they used it on the 3rd and 3 split back look on the opening drive of the second half. A.J. Brown was the guy, and Hurts just handed off to Miles Sanders for a couple of yards and a first down. This was something we saw a lot of last year, with pre-snap motion and a guy moving behind the quarterback.

10) The Hollywood Brown touchdown was pretty gross. Couple of missed tackles there. T.J. Edwards first, then CJGJ ripping up a big chunk of grass and failing to wrap up. Darius Slay looked like he had a half-chance. They brought five on that play against a Cardinals empty set, but the play was there to make.

11) Not sure what happened on the blown 3rd and 2 right before halftime. Hurts pulled that ball looking to pass, but if he was reading J.J. Watt, he made the wrong decision to not just hand it off instead. The Birds finished the day 6-13 on third down.

12) That fake punt on 4th and 4 was sneaky. FOX wasn’t even ready for it, but they did a nice job of pulling back and showing us the replay right away. I guess in Kingsbury’s mind, you’re 2-2, the Eagles are getting the ball to start the third, you’re down 14-7, and have nothing to lose, which is an underrated Kiss song:

13) Not a great T.J. Edwards game. He missed a couple of tackles and wasn’t anywhere near a big gap on that 3rd and 1 James Conner run that preceded the Cardinals’ pre-halftime field goal.

14) Crazy how fast a drive can change. The Eagles were moving the ball to start the third quarter, then you chain together a holding penalty and batted ball and all of a sudden you’re looking at 2nd and 20 from the Arizona 25. Throw in a blown up screen pass and next thing you know, you’re kicking a field goal.

15) Dicker the Kicker with the game-winning field goal! How about it? Dicker! Dicker! Dicker!

16) Britain Covey returning punts makes me nervous as shit. Not Jalen Reagor nervous, but close. I know on that one sequence he thought he was hit before catching the ball, but man just call for a fair catch.

17) Rare drop from DeVonta Smith at the end of the third, but he finished with 87 yards on 10 catches and led the team with 11 targets. A.J. Brown, meantime, was mostly invisible in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarters, and finished with 3 grabs for 32. They gotta make sure that never happens again.

18) Good job disguising fronts by the Cardinals in high-leverage 3rd down situations, but it seemed like the Eagles weren’t ready on some of those sequences. AZ would throw 6-7 guys on the line of scrimmage, then either drop or blitz at the snap. They got Hurts with a sack on one of those, and dropped off for a 3rd and long stop. They’ll need to “do a better job” with that next time, as Andy Reid would say.

19) Way too passive on that Arizona drive that tied the game up. Not sure what Jonathan Gannon was doing there. Playing soft, trying to contain Murray? D looked gassed on that drive. Whatever it was, it was barftastic:

20) No clue how Murray missed a wide open Zach Ertz there at the end. Jesus H Christ!

21) Chris Myers, Robert Smith, and Jen Hale was a nice break in broadcasting action, even though it sounded like Myers was stuck in 1st gear the entire time. It felt like we got one of Spero Dedes, Adam Amin, or Mark Schlereth 400 times in a row prior to this. If the Birds keep winning, they’ll get the A Team every week.

22) Let’s end it with video of the shank-o-potamus: