Cardinals
to try to go back, get stronger from this and make a run.”
Over the past month, the Cardinals adopted an attitude that one more loss doomed their playoff hopes. With the arrival of that loss, the attitude has changed.
“It’s just a minor setback,” receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “We still control our own destiny.”
That, too, is an echo of Arians’ postgame talk to his players, and it’s a stretch. The Cardinals certainly won’t win four consecutive games playing the way they did on Sunday.
The problems started on the first series, when Carson Palmer was stripped of the ball during a sack. The Eagles had blown a coverage, and Palmer had a receiver open deep. Instead, the Eagles recovered the fumble at the Cardi- nals 25 and scored four plays later to take a 7-0 lead.
The Cardinals defense also started slowly. Quarterback Nick Foles’ third touchdown pass came on the first possession of the second half and gave the Eagles (7-5) a 24-7 lead.
As they did in the first half of the season, the Cardinals struggled to cover tight ends. The Eagles’ Zach Ertz and Brent Celek combined for nine catches, 97 yards and three touchdowns.
“We thought they have got some really good corners, starting with (Patrick) Peterson,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. “So (we were) trying to get them matched up on some safeties and some linebackers. We feel we have three that are talented, and when matchups present themselves, we can exploit them.”
As they have for most of the season, the Cardinals played better in the second half and by midway through the fourth quarter, they had the crowd of 69,144 biting their
‘‘
I’ll say this: The refereeing did not determine us losing the football game.”
Cardinals coach nails instead of blowing on them.
Two touchdown passes by Palmer closed the gap to three points, and Peterson followed the second one with an apparent interception of Foles’ pass at the Eagles 43.
It looked like the Cardinals might pull off a victory.
“That was the play to win the game for us,” Arians said. “That’s where we’ve been all year. We make a play to win the game in the fourth quarter.”
But safety Tyrann Mathieu was called for holding, negating the interception.
“I didn’t think I held him,” Mathieu said. “I think I was being a defensive back, trying to get a good jam on him. It was unfortunate he called that during that interception.”
The Cardinals also thought it was unfortunate the Eagles weren’t called for pass interference on a deep pass to receiver Michael Floyd a few minutes later.
Also unfortunate, in the Cardi- nals view, was a holding penalty against outside linebacker Matt Shaughnessy, who was called for grabbing tight end James Casey.
That penalty on third down from the Cardinals 9, allowed the Eagles to run out the clock.
“If someone is blocking me and I disengage with him and he falls down, that’s not my fault,” Shaughnessy said. “It happens every week. This week, it’s different.”
Linebacker Daryl Washington complained vehemently about the call, drawing an unsportsmanlikeconduct penalty.
“I said, ‘It’s a bad call, ref, in a situation like this,’ ” Washington said. “I turned around and saw the flag on the ground.”
If there is a lesson to be learned from Sunday, Peterson said, it’s to not start so poorly on the road “where you’re not going to get any calls. It’s hard for it to end like that. We fought so hard to get back in it.”