If you appreciate pain, the Eagles’ 20-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals Sunday in the desert certainly moved the needle.
The already decimated Eagles’ offensive line took a couple of more hits when left guard Landon Dickerson and center Jason Kelce exited in the first half.
When Kelce left, the Cardinals blew up backup center Cam Jurgens, just like they were supposed to. The timing, blocking assignments and snaps were a little off from the rookie. So was the play-calling.
Instead of getting the ball to Dallas Goedert, who was unstoppable over the middle and on screens, the Eagles downshifted to the DeVonta Smith plan. Screen left, screen right, incomplete, punt. Take away the 22-yard reception and Smith finished with nine mostly insignificant catches for 65 yards.
Kelce returned for the second half but was playing one leg. The bull rushes of JJ Watt and the Cardinals were excruciating on his almost 35-year-old body. Kelce looked like the hero in one of those old war movies, the good guy fresh out of ammunition trying to take out as many bad guys as he could until his last breath.
“Kelce,” Goedert said, “he’s a dawg, man.”
By the end of the third quarter, Nick Sirianni was yelling at Jalen Hurts for a third down pass to Smith. There was no mention of it afterward because much is forgotten in a win.
The Eagles survived because Hurts is better than Kyler Murray, because Kelce and then Dickerson sucked it up in the second half, and because they just plain have more players than the Cardinals.
“Jason Kelce fought through it,” Sirianni said. “Landon Dickerson fought through it. They’re warriors. That offensive line is warriors.”
The Eagles leaned on the line, including left tackle Jack Driscoll, who Sirianni praised effusively in the postgame, on what proved to be the game-winning 13-play, 70-yard drive almost exclusively on the ground.
Goedert’s 16-yard catch-and-run on third-and-11 was the big blow. Rookie Cameron Dicker, filling in for the injured Jake Elliott, delivered a 23-yard field goal to put the Eagles ahead with 1:48 remaining.
To be fair, the Cardinals were running out of troops, too. They began the game without their starting center. By the second half, two more starters were gone, including running back James Conner, who gashed the Eagles for 55 yards on nine rushes in the first half.
The Cardinals, who trailed by two touchdowns in the first half, tied the score at 17 with 9:43 left on a way-too-easy 11-yard run by Eno Benjamin, capping a way-too-easy 90-yard march.
Though the Eagles went ahead, 20-17, the Cardinals had one more drive left. Murray’s game awareness left something to be desired when he pulled up short of a first down with no timeouts remaining, then had to spike the ball on third down at the 25-yard line with 23 seconds left.
That left Matt Ammendola, also a backup kicker, with a 43-yard field goal attempt. It didn’t come close to the uprights, veering left to send the Eagles into a noisy celebration on the sideline, saved by a missed kick.
The Eagles made decisions you can second guess. Prior to Dicker’s go-ahead field goal, Sirianni okayed a pass on third and goal at the five-yard line, nearly picked off by the Cardinals with 1:48 left to stop the clock. The Eagles got lucky that the Cards were hit with the loss of their final timeout for an injured player in the last two minutes.
Late in the first half, Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury caught the Eagles by surprise when Darryl Williams, the punt protector, picked up the first down on a fake that led to a field goal cutting the Eagles’ lead to 14-10 at the half.
Stop me if you’ve heard this but it could have been worse had Murray not thrown consecutive incompletions at the two-yard line of the Eagles. One of the receivers was wide open. Those were plays Hurts routinely turns into rushing touchdowns. He got both Eagles’ TDs Sunday and has six on the season.
The Eagles (5-0) needed a win to keep a step ahead of the competition in the NFC East, which suddenly has become a three-team race. The New York Giants are 4-1 after defeating the Green Bay Packers, 27-22. It’s their best start since 2009. The Dallas Cowboys also are 4-1, as they defeated the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams, 22-10. Quarterback Cooper Rush won his fourth straight start this season.
The Eagles are 5-0 for the first time since 2017. They won for the first time in six starts at State Farm Stadium. They entertain the Cowboys Sunday night.
“Big game next week,” said Goedert, who caught eight passes for 95 yards. “Division game. We’ve got to be ready for that.”
Contact Bob Grotz at rgrotz@delcotimes.com or @bobgrotz on Twitter.