Trent Cole celebrates one of his two sacks. Photo by Peter Wodarczyk/contrastphotography.com

The Eagles have now won four games in a row after knocking off the Arizona Cardinals 24-21 at Lincoln Financial Field in front of a crowd that has now witnessed two consecutive victories for the first time in a long time.

The last few wins have not been pretty. In fact, the Birds had to hold on at the end again, and get a break on a phantom defensive holding call on Arizona in the final two minutes before they could enjoy their seventh win the the season. 

But talk to any Eagles defender about having the game in their hands and answer is the same…they would not have it any other way.

“We’ll take them all day,” defense end/linebacker Trent Cole said at his locker after recording two sacks, a defended pass and a forced fumble. “It doesn’t matter what the situation is. If it’s on us we’re going out there do what we have to do. If we’re back up there on the five-yard yard line, we have to stop them. That’s what it is.

The Cardinals (7-5) first two possessions resulted in turnovers, the Eagles converted the first, a fumble by quarterback Carson Palmer, on a sack and forced fumble by Cole, into a six-yard touchdown pass from Nick Foles to Jack Ertz.

Other than that it was a battle of defenses going well into the second quarter.

Without speedy rookie running back Andre Ellington, The Cardinals looked slow and out of sinc in the first half.

The Cardinals though still had Pro Bowl wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald and the quick-strike opportunities he brings to the table. The Cardinals were able to tap that asset in the second quarter.

At third and 20, Palmer hit Fitzgerald with a 43-yard laser over the middle that the 30-year-old caught in traffic at 25-yard line the then raced to the end zone to make it 7-7.

“The [Eagles] players bounced off me and I saw green and I got a great block down the field on their safety and it enabled me to get into the end zone. I think the touchdown came at a good time because were a little stale on offense and we needed a boost.”
Fitzgerald admitted falling behind 17-7, and not keeping pace with the Eagles hurt his team’s chance to come out with a win.

“We did not do enough in the forst half to help ourselves win,” Fitzgerald said. “We dug ourselves a hole in the first and we still believed that we could come back in the game, we have doneit before. We practiced a lot of thrid down plays at practice this week but did not do enough to get enough first downs.

In the second quarter the Birds had one drive end with a 32-yard Alex Henery fiueld goal and another, a nine-play 78-yard drive end with a one-yard toss to tight end Brent Celek.

The Eagles raised the score to 24-7 in the third when Nick Foles found Ertz again in the end zone with a 24-yard strike.

But that was it for the offense and the start of a comeback for the Cardinals.

Palmer shook off his three turnovers (2 Ints, fumble) to hit Michael Floyd with a 24-yard touchdown pass in the third and tight end Jim Dray with a three-yard TD pass with 4:45 in the game.

Palmer admitted the turnovers hurt his team’s chances early.

“It’s huge…huge,” said Palmer who was 24 of 41 for 302 yards, three TD passes, two Ints and a QB rating of 85.6. He was sacked five times. “Three turnovers on offense and we had one that was called back. You can’t come into a place like this and play against a good team in front of a crowd like this and not win the [turnover] battle. You can’t expect to win.”

Foles again was terrific. The second-year signal caller was 21 of 34 for 237 yards and three touchdown passes. He too was sacked five times but did not fumble or throw an interception. Foles now has 19 touchdown passes to start the season without an interception. He is one shy of Peyton Manning’s record of 20 TD passes without a pick to start a season.

Ertz led the Eagles with five catches for 68 yards and two TDs. LeSean McCoy had 79 yards on 19 carries and five catches for 36 yards.

McCoy said four in a row “feels good” but admitted the Eagles need to score more in the fourth quarter to have their success continue.

“We try to stay out of this situation,” McCoy said. “We just have to do a better job to close out the game. We have gone through this a couple of times and we just have to do a better job.”

Cardinals tackle Bradley Sowell summed it up the game for the Cardinals.

“We gave the ball to the Eagles too easily in the beginning of the game and that hurt us,” said Sowell. “We always feel like we will win and come back and have a lot of confidence. We know though that we cannot turn the ball over too easy on the road against a good team.”