December 31, 2023
Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports
Eagles QB Jalen Hurts ahead of Week 17's game against the Cardinals.
UPDATE [4:46 p.m.] – The Eagles lost.
They had a 15-point lead on one of the NFL's worst teams and lost, 35-31.
They're still going to the playoffs, and still have a shot to clinch the NFC East again, but things are looking real bad right now with only one week left on the schedule.
Happy New Year! The Eagles are imploding! Our postgame coverage...
• Final observations: Cardinals 35, Eagles 31 (Shamus Clancy)
• What went wrong: Just about everything as Eagles blow it against Cardinals (Nick Tricome)
• Playoff picture: Eagles need a miracle to win NFC East (Evan Macy)
EARLIER...
After beating the woeful New York Giants in somewhat unsatisfying fashion a week ago, the 11-4 Philadelphia Eagles will face their second straight bad opponent in the 3-12 Arizona Cardinals.
The Eagles will be without Darius Slay for the third straight game, but their secondary will be bolstered by the return of Avonte Maddox. The Cardinals, meanwhile, have a bunch of noteworthy injuries, and are particularly banged up at linebacker and along their defensive line. You can find the Eagles-Cardinals injury report here.
As we noted in our five matchups to watch, the Eagles should be able to pour on points against this Cardinals defense which was bad to begin with but is also missing a slew of starters. It'll be alarming if they don't. Offensively, the Cards do have some talent, notably in their run game with the powerful James Conner and the shifty, frenetic Kyler Murray.
The line for this game has moved around a bit this week, but has settled in at Eagles (-12.5) or (-13), depending on where you look. Here are our staff writer picks, and my NFL-wide Week 17 picks. Feel free to discuss the game in the comments section below.
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