top of page

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Thanks for subscribing!

Writer's pictureSteven Poss

What To Watch For Week 5: Eagles At Cardinals

After a messy Week Four come-from-behind victory against the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Eagles travel to Arizona to face the 2-2 Cardinals coming off of a 26-16 victory against the Carolina Panthers. While this Cardinals team is not the same team they have faced over the last couple of seasons, this Arizona team will still be a test.

Kyler Murray, the Cardinals’ quarterback, is one of the most dynamic playmakers in the league and is keeping the Cardinals in the NFC West race. This will be the first game that the defense will face a quarterback who can do damage outside of the pocket, and will be one of the many things to watch for this week.

The Defensive Line

We’ve seen the highest of highs (nine sacks vs Washington) and the lowest of lows (Detroit game) for the defense early in this season. Arizona has been one of the better pass blocking teams this year while struggling in the run game. This will play to the advantage of the Eagles early on; they won’t allow Arizona to establish any type of run game forcing them to throw the ball.

Containing Kyler Murry is much easier said than done. He has an unique ability to extend plays and can turn any broken play into the backyard football we all grew up playing. If the Eagles will successfully limit Murray and the Cardinals offense, reigning NFC Defensive Player of the Week Hasson Reddick and Josh Sweat will have to have a big game. Expect them to each record a sack and Reddick force another fumble.

Jack Driscoll

With Jordan Mialata ruled out this week, this will be the first full game that Jalen Hurts does not have Mialata protecting his blind side this season. Utility offensive linemen Jack Driscoll will step in and be the starting Left Tackle (LT) against Arizona. After stepping in Week Four when Mialata got injured, the Jaguars exclusively forced Jalen Hurts to stay in the pocket and operate on the left side of the field. Arizona will likely try and do the same and get JJ Watt as many snaps on Driscoll as they can.

To make things easier for Driscoll early on the Eagles should use a tight end to chip block to help Driscoll or an abundance of run-pass-option (RPO) plays to allow quick developing plays, making Driscoll hold his block for a shorter period of time.

The Wide Receivers

Per Pro Football Focus, Arizona ranks 32nd(out of 32 teams) in pass coverage. This is very problematic for the Cardinals as the Eagles have had a different leading receiver each of the first three weeks. Will the Eagles play ‘bully ball’ with the receivers and run quick slants and screens with AJ Brown and Dallas Goedert, or will Devonta Smith and Quez Watkins be making plays down the field.

To stop this Eagles’ offense you have to be bigger and stronger than Brown and Goedert, more technically sound than Smith and faster than Watkins. No team has found a way to stop all four while containing Jalen Hurts and I do not see that starting this week. Both AJ Brown and Devonta Smith will both go for over 100 yards while the top four pass catchers will all have over 50 receiving yards. This is the week where all four batmans have a great game.

A quarter of the way through the season the Eagles are undefeated. 4-0 is a great start. 5-0 is an even better start and the team will be clicking on all cylinders going into Dallas week as THE ONLY UNDEFEATED TEAM IN THE NFL!

Check out our latest content and don’t forget to follow our Facebook and Twitter pages for more Eagles coverage!

0 views
bottom of page