Cards-40 Eagles-17: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly

[NJCardFan]

Wow. What a night. After the nightmare that was traffic getting to the parking lot I always use(I park for free and refuse to pay $40 to park) and walking into a fight right through the gate into the stadium, and missing nearly all of the first drive, I got to see this beat down live! Cold as hell but worth being there!! Here's my analysis.

The Good

NFC West Champions-And we didn't back into it. We stomped a mudhole in the Eagles and walked them dry in the process.

12 Wins For The First Time-This is groundbreaking. Over 100 years old and this is the first time we win 12 games. Let's see if we can get another first in February.

David Johnson-On our way home tonight I listened to WiP because I wanted to hear the Eagle fans whine(and they did) but the commentators said something that made me beam with pride at this young man. There have been exactly 2 running backs in history who gained over 185 yards against the Eagles. Our David Johnson and one Jim Brown. That's great company to be in.

Offensive Game Plan-It was glaringly obvious that BA wanted to establish the run and considering that the Eagles run defense is abysmal is an understatement and they didn't fare any better tonight. The Cards simply bludgeoned them into submission. 493 yards with 230 on the ground at nearly 6 yards per carry. The one hiccup was being inside the 5 yard line and deciding to pass instead of run but I forgive them of that.

Offensive Line-Can't praise these guys enough. The only bad play they had was the first sack on Palmer(Shipley simply got bulldozed by Cox).

Defense-Yes they gave up a lot of yards tonight and yes they looked down right blase at times but they tightened when it counted. The one glitch was the 78 yard bomb for a TD. I didn't appreciate letting the Eagles out of a 3rd and 16 from their own 1 yard line but I think this drive eventually ended up with Bradford fumbling. They also let them have a few 3rd and longs but again, the Eagles are going to get their yards. They didn't let them score which is what counts.

Darren Fells-I early left him off this list but he had a monster game last night.

Disciplined Game-No turnovers and 1 bogus penalty call(still trying to see where Iupati was holding).

A Lot Of Card Fans In Attendance-Saw a lot of Card fans in the stadium. Maybe not as many as Giant or Cowboy fans but we represented well.

Eagle Fans Leaving In The 3rd Quarter-I've seen bandwagon fans before but c'mon. There was a whole quarter left and you're leaving? It was wonderful to see.

The Bad

Dropped Balls-Starting with John Brown dropping a sure TD on the first play of the game, among other drops by him, there were a lot of dropped balls. I'm going to chalk it up to it being cold(it was).

Starters In The Game Late-It was a blowout. Why were we not only risking injury to someone like Palmer just by being in there, we were passing the ball. When he got sacked late in the game, it looked like he got jerked in half. If he would have gotten hurt, BA would have had to find himself somewhere else to go. Then HB got hurt. Hopefully it's not too bad.

Cat-man-Most of his kickoffs didn't even reach the endzone and he missed another extra point.

Butler-I know punting tonight might have been like kicking a cinder block but c'mon man. He was simply awful tonight.

Kick Coverage-This has to improve. We're not going to win many games giving someone like Cam Newton only half a field to play with.

The Ugly

Ugly for Eagle fans but not for us. LOL. Now let's best the Pack and secure #2!

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Good summary

DJ and Jim Brown in the same sentence? Wow, what a great night for DJ

Getting the run game going really made this all work. Oline gets some credit.

Kicking game needs some work for sure

JB dropping all those passes last night was concerning. Great to see CP go right back at him in the 2nd half. Had to get his confidence back and he did.

Had them buried at the 1 and Bradford makes a miracle throw. Should have had a safety on the play before. Bradford did make quite a few big throws to keep drives going. Our D played tough for first and second down and then would give up big plays for the first on third.

Have to hope TM is okay

Thanks for cheering us on in person NJCardFan!

 

[NJCardFan]

I do give Bettcher a ton of credit as he conceded that the Eagles were going to get their yards but when it counted they tightened up.

 

[Cardsfanstl]

Dropped balls were the only thing I was not happy with in this game. Also could not see Iaputi's penalty. Collinsworth seemed to be stretching to explain it.

Just savoring this moment right now.

 

[Brak]

I think the Jim Brown comparison was 185 yards AND 3 TDs... not just the yardage alone, there have (apparently) been more that have done just that. So what - still an amazing comparison and performance by young DJ.

 

[NJCardFan]

I think the Jim Brown comparison was 185 yards AND 3 TDs... not just the yardage alone, there have (apparently) been more that have done just that. So what - still an amazing comparison and performance by young DJ.

You're right because Martin from Tampa racked up 220 or so yards on the Eagles this season.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

I think I was more impressed with Bradford last night, than I ever have in the past. He just may be the type of QB, if available, that BASK will try to bring in when Palmer hangs it up. He's proven to be tough...can take hits....come back from devastating injuries...can sling the ball and isn't afraid to stand in there...Very similar to Palmer, but also has the ability to scramble a bit better.

 

[RON_IN_OC]

I do give Bettcher a ton of credit as he conceded that the Eagles were going to get their yards but when it counted they tightened up.

Yup, without RJ, I think the Cards knew the middle of the field would be more vulnerable...so they took away the outside and the running game.

 

[DakotaCardsFan]

The Ugly: Those NFC West Champion shirts. Black with a design that makes you stare at the shirt for 15 seconds trying to read the fine print to figure out what it commemorates. What does "The West is on lock" even mean? Is that some new slang you kids are using these days?
<leansbackinrockingchair>

 

[RON_IN_OC]

The Ugly: Those NFC West Champion shirts. Black with a design that makes you stare at the shirt for 15 seconds trying to read the fine print to figure out what it commemorates. What does "The West is on lock" even mean? Is that some new slang you kids are using these days?
<leansbackinrockingchair>

Just a shorter way of saying the west is on lockdown.

 

[NJCardFan]

This was also the largest margin of victory over the Eagles since 1983 when we beat them 31-7 in the snow at Busch Stadium(Dan Dierdorf's final game).

 

[Jay Cardinal]

I think I was more impressed with Bradford last night, than I ever have in the past. He just may be the type of QB, if available, that BASK will try to bring in when Palmer hangs it up. He's proven to be tough...can take hits....come back from devastating injuries...can sling the ball and isn't afraid to stand in there...Very similar to Palmer, but also has the ability to scramble a bit better.

I thought showed some real toughness tonight. Cards put him on his back, but he kept getting up. A couple of bad picks, but Carson had many before AZ.

 

[Dude]

The good: You got to see it live in Philadelphia. Hate that team. I can now never think about the Thanksgiving beat down again. A 40-17 win for the NFC west will do just fine instead.

PS. Loving DJ right about now.

 

[Paso Fino]

Its troublesome that the Eagles had 350 net passing yards and more yardage per completions (8.1) than the Cardinals (7.5). You get a more mobile quarterback like Wilson or Newton and the Cardinals could be in trouble.

 

[CardinalMan]

The Bad:

I was out of the country with limited Internet access and didn't get to see this game.

 

[football karma]

I think the offensive approach to the Cardinals has been set: the short passing game with lots of crosses and misdirection. Thus far, for all the yards, there havent been points with it.

the defensive approach last night was as expected -- they dared AZ to run and kept coverage high and alert for the deep ball. With the exception of the first play of the game, the Eagles kept everything in front of them.

I was going to start out by saying that is the approach we will see now on -- but after the way they have run the ball the last three games, I am not so sure.

GB is as bad vs the run than the Eagles -- if you are Dom Capers, do you sit back and let the Cards run at you all day?

 

[NJCardFan]

Its troublesome that the Eagles had 350 net passing yards and more yardage per completions (8.1) than the Cardinals (7.5). You get a more mobile quarterback like Wilson or Newton and the Cardinals could be in trouble.

We didn't need to pass the ball as much but you can chalk some of this to dropped passes. I counted at least 5 drops, 3 from Smoke.

 

[Bert]

We didn't need to pass the ball as much but you can chalk some of this to dropped passes. I counted at least 5 drops, 3 from Smoke.

Plus that stat is skewed by the long TD we gave up on a busted coverage.

Also, uhh, yeah our passing numbers were pedestrian because of the drops and also because that Johnson guy ran for 200 yards, lol.