Mike Sliwinski

Here we are week 17. One week remaining in the regular season and for those lucky enough, the fantasy football championship. The Eagles sit at 11 and 4 and despite all the noise, they are coming off a win and tied for the best record in the conference, but unfortunately they lose out on both sets of tiebreakers and need help to move from 3rd to 2nd  or 1st.

On paper the game is one of the easiest of the season where they welcome an old “friend” in Arizona’s head coach, Jonathon Gannon. Whereas the Eagles sit tied with the best record in the conference, Arizona sits with the 2nd worst in the conference, and all of football for that matter at 3 and 12.

Arizona has the 9th worst offense but QB Kyler Murray is back and does present a threat. James Conner is a bruising RB. The Cards best WR Marquise Brown  just went on IR, which is helpful for the Eagles struggling secondary. What is not helpful is TE Trey Mcbride, who is having a pretty good year at just under 750 yards receiving, and might feast against the lackluster LB core of the Eagles. With the Eagles defense ranked 20th this ends up being pretty even but I give the edge to the Eagles.

Defensively Arizona is the 6th worse in the league. None of the players on the defensive side for Arizona are household names or anywhere close to being thought of as all pros. Meanwhile the Eagles Offensively are slated to have a 4,000 yard passer, two 1,000 yard receivers, and a 1,000 yard rusher. They rank 8th in offense. Heavy advantage to the Eagles here.

In the end the Eagles are more talented, better coached, playing at home, and really better in every aspect. The Eagles would need to beat themselves. Past weeks have shown that they are capable of doing that, but this seems like a get right game and a blowout for the Eagles. Even a mistake or two will not change that. This starts getting them back on track as one of the top teams in the league and rolling back in the right direction as the playoffs are approaching. The line has moved up from 10.5 to 12. I still think they cover.

Eagles 35 Cardinals 17

Pat Mulranen

Jonathan Gannon is returning, and I hope he leaves crying. 

I defended him all last season. The Eagles had one of the best defenses in the league, despite not playing great offenses. But when it mattered (against a good offense) he was torched in the Super Bowl. I lost all respect for Gannon in that game. All they needed was one stop… just ONE STOP!!! I can’t stop thinking about Jalen Hurts doing everything he can to go down the field late in the game and get that TD and rush for the tying two-point conversion. Gannin had to stop Mahomes and the Chiefs to get the offense the ball back or at least force overtime, and couldn’t. 

He had better players than the Eagles have this year. I don’t care about that James Bradberry flag. Gannon blew the game. And, to top it off, he knew he had already sealed the head coaching job in Arizona. I bet he didn’t even care. 

I would love to see the Eagles beat him, and they should.

The Eagles snapped their three-game losing skid on Christmas and, even though it was not a pretty win, hopefully the win provided a spark. It had to, right? Even if it didn’t, they get a chance against another inferior opponent. The Eagles just have to take care of the ball better. We keep saying this, yet they keep turning the ball over. The Giants scored 15 points off turnover. The Eagles had three fumbles against Dallas, which led to the Cowboys adding to their lead. 

The Eagles have two games remaining, both against winnable opponents. They need to work out their kinks and get ready for the playoffs. They have not played a complete game all year, either. But I liked what they did toward the end of that Giants game, besides allowing that late TD. Offensively, however, they operated pretty well on their last few drives.

The Eagles should win this game. I just want to see a cleaner and more complete game as they prepare for the playoffs. 

Eagles 31, Cardinals 16