Rob Allen and his officiating crew gave the Eagles a late Christmas gift Saturday — an opportunity to control the second seed.

After the Cowboys beat the Lions, the Eagles just needed to win their final two games to guarantee that spot.

All they had to do was beat the three-win Cardinals. …

The Eagles could not even do that right.

The Cardinals did not punt and dropped 449 yards of total offense en route to a 35-31 win over the Eagles. The only drive the Cardinals did not score was on their second possession that Sydney Brown intercepted for a TD and when they had the ball to end the first half.

The Cardinals were 1-7 on the road and 13-point underdogs. They had the 27th-ranked offense and were averaging 18 points per game. But they were scoring drive after drive, Sunday and came back from a 21-6 deficit.

The Eagles not only lost the second seed, but they are now the fifth seed and will play the NFC South winners. There is no hope for the NFC East title and, at this point, does it really even matter? There’s no hope at all! Period!

The Eagles should have won this game, and there is absolutely no excuse for losing this. The defense could not stop anything. I had absolutely no hope they could stop Arizona after Jake Elliott’s field goal. I just knew the Eagles could not stop them. It’s really sad.

The Eagles are going to the playoffs, but I don’t think anyone cares at all. Most people may not even want to watch their last game next week, and I can’t blame you if you fall in that group.

The Cardinals had 32 first downs… that’s just crazy. Kyler Murray looked amazing, and he’s nothing special. He threw for 232 yards with three TDs. James Conner rushed for 128 yards and a touchdown. Where was the Eagles’ run defense? It was nonexistent. They had the top run defense through Week 10. They possessed the ball for about 40 minutes,

The defense was nonexistent, but what else is new? Hopefully they make a lot of changes in the offseason.

Wow… look at me already talking about the offseason approach of an 11-5 team. How weird is that to say? The Eagles are 11-5, yet any hope for them is out the window. How sad is that?

It has been just extremely brutal, so there’s no other way to look at it. They are playing with zero heart and don’t seem to care. That’s not a recipe for success. There is no reason to have any confidence. If you think this team is going anywhere, then I don’t know what you have been watching the last month.

As bad as the defense was, the offensive play calling was atrocious again, and this is all on Brian Johnson. He has to go after the season, too.

When it was 28-28 and the Eagles faced a 1st-and-20 at the Cardinals’ 30-yard line, why did Jalen Hurts run on the first two downs? Why did they do a 5-yard pass to Kenny Gainwell on third-and-19.

The offense finished with 275 total yards, 17 first downs and 24 points against a very bad defense (seven points were from Brown’s pick-six). The offense is just as much to blame. The Eagles longest offensive play was 23 yards. The offense collapsed as much as the defense, but the defense was obviously worse. Still, the offense was 1-for-4 on third down in the second half. It should be better.

The entire game was frustrating. Really, the last month has been.

Nick Sirianni said after the loss he still had faith in his players, but no one else does.