Wentz tosses 4 touchdown passes, Eagles beat Cardinals

PHILADELPHIA » Carson Wentz looked like the vintage Carson Palmer.

Wentz threw a careerbest four touchdown passes to help the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Arizona Cardinals 34-7 on Sunday.

The quarterbacks and teams seem headed in opposite directions. Wentz has the Eagles off to an impressive 4-1 start in his second season. Meanwhile, the window could be closing for the 37-year-old Palmer and the Cardinals (2-3).

“The sky’s the limit,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “And the key is just staying grounded and staying focused on the next game. These wins, these losses, are short-lived in this business and you have to get yourself ready to go within 24 hours.”

While Philadelphia quickly prepares for a trip to Carolina (4-1) on Thursday night, the Cardinals return home to face Tampa Bay (2-2) looking to avoid a downward spiral.

“We have to find out what went so wrong and find ways to improve,” Palmer said. “We have a veteran group with guys that are professionals and we have to pick it up. There’s no doubt we have to do better on offense.”

Wentz tossed three scoring passes on three consecutive attempts in the first quarter, including 59 yards to Torrey Smith, 11 yards to Zach Ertz and 15 yards to Trey Burton. He connected with Nelson Agholor for a 72-yard TD on third-and-19 in the third quarter. Wentz is the first Eagles player to throw for three touchdowns in the first quarter of a game.

Here are some things we learned following Philadelphia’s convincing win over the Cardinals:

THIRD-DOWN DOMINANCE

The Eagles entered with the NFL’s second-best thirddown offense and went 9 for 14 in those situations. Wentz was 11 for 12 for 225 yards and three TDs on third down. Wentz already has six TDs on third downs in five games. He had three such TDs his entire rookie season. “Third down is the money down,” Wentz said. “To be that efficient, that’s huge.”

BLAME GAME

Cardinals coach Bruce Arians said the flat performance was his fault. “I got to point it at me because our team obviously was not ready to play in all three phases,” he said.