Finally, in a game that will not completely suck, for lack of a better word, the struggling Eagles at 5-5-1 will host the NFC-West leading Cardinals in a late game. Hopefully, you'll be able to see it on the NFL Network.
The obvious player everyone will be watching in this game is Donovan McNabb, who was foolishly, in my opinion, benched for the second half in last week's loss to the Ravens for Kevin Kolb. Although I agree with the decision to move on with McNabb and gradually insert Kolb, it didn't make a whole lot of sense to throw him in against one of the league's best defense in a tight game. Donovan needs to stop turning the ball over and resume making plays, but that will be difficult with such shattered confidence.With their recent poor play, the Eagles are starting to become irrelevant and out of the playoff picture, making this game possibly Andy Reid's and McNabb's last chances to stay in Philadelphia without the fans hurling snowballs and shouting obscenities at them. They really have, in all seriousness, benefited to this point from the Phillies winning the World Series. The fans are just now starting to get on their backs.
Arizona, meanwhile, has basically locked up the West. Now, they're just fighting to get a good playoff seed, possibly even a bye with their fairly light schedule to close the regular season.
We all know that the Cardinals' offense revolves around Kurt Warner tossing the ball to his favorite targets, Larry Ftizgerald and Anquan Boldin. Philly's tough D, although it's been questionable in the past weeks, might be able to slow them down with a steady pass rush. However, with Asante Samuel likely out at cornerback, it's tough for me to think that the Cardinals' O won't be able to continue their great success.
On the other side, the Eagles' offense is going down fast with an ineffective, and probably beaten-up McNabb along with a Brian Westbrook that doesn't look very healthy. Arizona, however, is prone to giving up a good amount of points, and it is possible that McNabb has a bounce-back week and is able to get back to some degree of normalcy. However, with all that has gone wrong, I sincerely doubt that he is able to do very much.
This game has the potential to be a very good one with a lot of offensive firepower in it. Both teams love to pass, and we should see them do it often. If the Eagles can somehow manage to find out how to convert on 3rd &1, maybe they can win. But again, McNabb just doesn't seem to be in a position where he'll be beating Arizona. I'm still tempted to say that the Eagles will find some way to win, nevertheless, in a game that they pretty much have to, but I'll go with the Cardinals 27 and the Eagles 14.
