Cardinals throttle Eagles, lock down NFC West crown

The Arizona Cardinals have spent the entire season cruising in the wake of the undefeated Carolina Panthers, and that’s just fine. The Cardinals, now 12-2, may not have the unblemished record of the Panthers, but they have a brand-new NFC West crown, and look every bit the equal of the Panthers.

The Cardinals knocked off the Eagles 40-17 with little difficulty, winning 12 games for the first time in franchise history. Quarterback Carson Palmer threw for a respectable 274 yards and a touchdown, but the story of the game was Arizona RB David Johnson. The rookie piled up 187 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries, and gives the Cardinals a ground-game dimension that will be difficult to defend.

Right from the start, the Eagles understood exactly what they faced in this year’s Arizona model. The Cardinals began the game with an eight-play, 87-yard touchdown drive, putting the Eagles in a defensive posture early. Arizona faltered a touch, allowing the Eagles to tie the game at 10. But then Johnson unleashed one of the signature runs of the entire season, a 47-yard Beast Mode-style touchdown rumble straight through the heart of the Philadelphia defense—and the hearts of the Philadelphia faithful.

Arizona locked down the NFC West crown with two games remaining, and are in solid shape to clinch a bye in the first round of the playoffs. Thing is, NFL seasons are 17 weeks, not 12 or 15, and it’s those last few that always seem to bite you. Last year, the Cardinals saw a promising season evaporate due to injury, and all those fears came roaring back when Palmer took a shot to the index finger on his throwing hand. But Palmer returned to the game on the next series, finger taped, and Cardinals fans exhaled.

Then, with less than three minutes left in the game and the Cardinals ahead by 23 points, Tyrann Mathieu went down with an undisclosed injury, leaving the field and heading straight to the locker room. If the Honey Badger is not able to continue, and if he was injured in the waning minutes of a game long in the bag, Cardinals fans will have every right to seethe.

Philadelphia closes with a critical, win-or-else game next week against division leader Washington before closing on the road against the Giants. If the Eagles have any hope of winning the division, they almost surely have to win both games.

Arizona, meanwhile, wraps with Green Bay and Seattle, a pair of matchups that would have seemed brutal before this season but now tilt firmly in the Cardinals’ favor. Arizona still has an outside chance to clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC, but regardless, their trend line should be more than enough to ensure the Panthers don’t get too comfortable

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