The Cardinals Stunned The Eagles To Give The 49ers The 1-Seed In The NFC

The Philadelphia Eagles came into Sunday’s game against the 3-12 Cardinals needing to win their final two games of the season and get a little help from the San Francisco. 49ers opponents if they were going to repeat as the NFC’s 1-seed and earn a first round bye in the playoffs. With the Lions controversial loss on Saturday night in Dallas, the Eagles also needed to win out to guarantee themselves the NFC East division title over the Cowboys.

Given the Cardinals record, they weren’t supposed to be a particularly big road block to the Eagles on Sunday, but as has been the case much of this season, Philadelphia insisted on making it difficult on themselves. The Eagles defense had no answers for Kyler Murray, James Conner, and the Cardinals offense all game, so when they arrived in the final two minutes needing a stop to preserve a 31-28 lead, there wasn’t much optimism.

Sure enough, the Cardinals moved deep into Philly territory on a long pass play to Greg Dortch, who broke free on a crossing route and got the ball inside the ten.

Then Arizona gave the ball to Conner, who had 128 yards rushing on the day, for his second total touchdown to put the Cardinals up by four.

Philly would move the ball out to midfield, but could only muster a Hail Mary attempt that got picked off in the end zone.

It was a brutal loss for the Eagles, as the defense has not seemed to take any strides forward with Matt Patricia now calling the plays and some pretty dreadful vibes around the team. They now find themselves tied with Dallas atop the NFC East standings entering the final week of the season (with the Cowboys owning the tiebreakder), and allow the Niners to go into Week 18 with the top seed wrapped up.

Source: https://uproxx.com/sports/cardinals-beat-eagles-49ers-win-1-seed-bye-nfc-playoffs-cowboys/