The Eagles wanted to win on Sunday night. They wanted to get back to .500 and help their push for the playoffs. They wanted to continue their winning streak. They also wanted to show they could play with the Cardinals, arguably the best team in the NFC.

The Eagles were good enough to tie the game at 10-10. They were good enough to be in position to tie it at 17. Unfortunately, they didn’t pull that off. And unfortunately, football games are 60 minutes.

Arizona played at a high level all night long. The Eagles got sloppy in the 3rd quarter and the Cardinals took advantage. A 17-10 lead turned into 37-10 in a short amount of time. Good teams don’t make mistakes and they do make you pay when you make them. That’s exactly what happened. Eagles turnovers led to Cardinals points.

The Eagles are now 6-8. They host the Skins on Saturday night. In the finale, they travel to play the Giants. Win both games…and the Eagles are NFC East champs. They would host a playoff game.

In some ways, Sunday night was meaningless. Had the Eagles won 40-17, it wouldn’t have changed the importance of the Skins game. That one really will make or break the season. I wonder if losing was actually a good thing. I want the Eagles playing with a sense of desperation on Saturday night. A win over Arizona might have falsely inflated some egos.

What does this game mean going forward? If the Eagles do make the playoffs, are they just going to get bounced early? Back in 2008, the Eagles hosted Arizona on Thanksgiving night. That game was a blowout, but the fun kind. The Eagles won 48-20 (and the game wasn’t even that close!). A few weeks later the same teams met in the NFC title game. I don’t think I have to remind you how that game turned out.

Last night’s game tells us that right now the Cardinals are clearly better than the Eagles. It doesn’t tell us what will happen in 3 weeks. That’s the beauty of the NFL. All you have to do is get hot at the right time or have the right matchup.

The Eagles can learn a lot from last night’s game. Tackling must improve. As it gets colder outside, teams become more physical. That means more running. Teams are going to watch that tape and very quickly decide to run right at the Eagles. I would.

Bill Davis and his staff have generally done a very good job of getting the team to tackle. That has been an up and down issue in the last month or so. The lack of stability at ILB hasn’t helped. The Eagles have also chosen DBs that are better at covering than being physical. That can make for a bad combination.

Davis and the coaches love to teach stripping the ball. The Eagles have done a good job of that in recent years. The coaches emphasize that the initial defender has to tackle the runner/receiver and the second defender then goes for the strip. Apparently all Byron Maxwell and Jaylen Watkins have heard is “Strip. Strip. Strip. Strip. Strip. Strip.” Those two are infuriating.

No one expects CBs to be great tacklers. Sheldon Brown was an anomaly. We’ve seen guys like Asante Samuel and Bobby Taylor struggle to tackle. Maxwell is similar to them. Watkins is the Joe Montana of bad tackling. He takes things to a whole new level. He would be considered a finesse player in flag football. I would think long and hard about keeping him around. When Byron Maxwell can say to you, “You’ve got to be more physical and tackle better”, that’s not good.

I’m frustrated with Sunday night’s performance, but I’m not angry like I was after the Tamp and Detroit games. Those were bad teams that ripped the Eagles apart. Arizona has an outstanding team. And I thought the Eagles battled up to the end. I hope there won’t be questions about effort and if the players have quit on Chip Kelly.

It feels funny to me that the team is 6-8 and coming off a 23-point loss and I’m somewhat calm about things. I guess you can look at it as though last night was a meaningless regular season finale. The playoffs start this week. There are 2 games left for the Eagles and it is do or die time.

I think part of what has me relaxed is that Sam Bradford played well last night. That’s the best I’ve seen him this year. He didn’t have the benefit of a good run game. And the Cards had a couple of lockdown DBs. But Bradford still found open receivers and threw for 361 yards. His passes had good velocity and he played with toughness and confidence.

The Eagles have issues to work on this week. But if the QB starts to play well (and Bradford has), that gives you a fighting shot in every game. That’s what the Eagles need as they head into a 2-game mini-playoff and then possibly the real postseason.

Now about that defense…

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