Battle Of The Birds

By : Mike Rifkin

The Philadelphia Eagles take their undefeated record on the road this week as they play the Arizona Cardinals. The Eagles, the NFL’s last unbeaten team defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars and former Head Coach Doug Pederson 29-21. It was a wet, rainy, sloppy game. The Eagles trailed 14-0 early but scored 29 unanswered points. 

Jalen Hurts who is off to a tremendous start this year was 16-25 for 204 yards and an interception. He also had 38 yards rushing and a touchdown. This is supposed to be a make or break year for Hurts in Philly and through four games he is passing the test with flying colors. He has a 66.7 completion percentage, 1,120 yards, four touchdowns, and two interceptions. He has added 205 yards rushing and four rushing touchdowns. The receiving duo of AJ Brown and Devonta Smith has been great to start the season just like the Eagles envisioned when they acquired Brown. The Eagles offense is second in total yards averaging 435.5 yards per game and they average 28.8 points per game. The Eagles defense deserves praise also they are first in sacks, turnover differential (+8), and third is yards allowed. Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon deserves an opportunity at a head coaching gig next year. 

On the other side there is the Arizona Cardinals who sit with a record of 2-2 and are coming off a 26-16 win over the Panthers. Kyler Murray had 207 yards passing and three total touchdowns (2 passing, 1 rushing). Marquise Brown who the Cardinals got from the Ravens leads the team with 30 catches, 339 yards and two touchdowns. Former Eagle Zach Ertz is also off to a good start with 22 catches 181 yards and two touchdowns. The Cardinals average 349.5 yards per game and 22.0 points per game. This is a big game for the Cardinals for many reasons. One of them is the fact that in their first two home games they looked bad against the Chiefs and Rams. But the other is this until the Cardinals win a big game against a good team the jury is going to be out on both Kyler Murray and Kliff Kingsbury both of whom got an extension that I feel was unwarranted. 

The offenses should be hot in the desert when these two teams play. For the Eagles they want to keep their unbeaten streak alive and the Cardinals need to win a big game, so the question is which bird will soar to victory?