Still perfect: Eagles are 5-0 after Cardinals miss a late field goal
The Philadelphia Eagles were challenged Sunday. They were in a fight in the fourth quarter, which hasn't been the case for most of this season.
The Arizona Cardinals tied Sunday's game at 17-17 with less than 10 minutes left. The Eagles were in a tough road game and their undefeated start was at risk. It's the kind of situation that can reveal a lot about a good team.
The Eagles went on a long, marathon drive in the fourth quarter to take a lead and then survived a 43-yard field goal attempt by Arizona that went wide right, hanging on to a 20-17 win. Fox said it's the third time the Eagles are 5-0 to start a season. The other instances were 1981 and 2004.
Early in Sunday's game, it looked like Philadelphia might blow out another opponent.
The Eagles led 14-0 a few minutes into the second quarter. Both scores were Jalen Hurts quarterback sneaks at the goal line. The Eagles' defense started the game by forcing three punts and an interception. A 14-point lead looked good.
Arizona battled back. Eno Benjamin scored on a touchdown run to tie the game at 17. The Cardinals had a lot of momentum at that point.
The Eagles' next drive was brutally efficient. Philadelphia kept churning out first downs and eating away at the clock. The Eagles got the one big play they needed on the drive when Hurts hit tight end Dallas Goedert on a third-and-11. Goedert made the catch, broke a tackle and got the first down.
The Eagles took possession with 9:43 left on the clock in a tie game. On third-and-goal Hurts threw a scary pass into traffic that was almost picked off but it fell to the ground incomplete. Cameron Dicker, filling in for injured kicker Jake Elliott, hit a field goal with 1:45 to go to give the Eagles the lead. The drive took almost seven minutes off the clock. It spanned 17 plays and 70 yards.
The Cardinals had a shot to send the game to overtime. Kyler Murray got the Cardinals into field-goal range in the final minute. But Matt Ammendola, who struggled earlier this season for the Kansas City Chiefs and was replacing injured Matt Prater on Sunday, badly missed a 43-yard attempt and the Eagles held on.
Philadelphia started 4-0 by surviving a Detroit Lions fourth-quarter garbage-time rally in Week 1, posting two blowouts and then coming back from 14-0 early against the Jacksonville Jaguars to win. This was the first time it really felt, in the fourth quarter of a game, that the Eagles were in danger of losing.
The Eagles look pretty good to start this season, and they survived a tough game Sunday with their perfect record intact. This winning streak might last a while.