Arizona Cardinals/Philadelphia Eagles preview with Bleeding Green Nation Ep. 25

no risk it no [Music] [Applause] [Music] biscuit coming from the Arizona desert presented by sbnation.com for Arizona Cardinal fans by Arizona Cardinal fan with Outsider and Insider's perspective this is revenge of the [Music] birds and we have joining us today on the show uh bleedinggreennation.com lead writer our Philadelphia Eagles team site from s SP Nation we have the lead writer with us today that's Brandon gon how how are you doing today Brandon I'm doing all right thanks for asking well thanks for the time out for for talking to us here on Revenge of the birds radio um want to talk to kind of getting ready for the game against the Eagles uh the Cardinal and Eagles have a have a recent history of of well at least the Cardinals have recent domination or or kind of have have this magical spell over the Eagles the past few years what what can what could what do Eagles fans think of the of the of the Cardinals these days uh well this year I think uh they think they're a very good team they they see a team that's won a couple games in a row here they see a team that has a a defense that's playing really well and it's led by former Eagles defensive coordinator Todd BS they see a team with a veteran quarterback Carson Palmer who is leading an offense that's not the best in the league but they're they're scoring points they put up 40 against the Colts last week so they see a team that's looking tough now um about Todd Bulls what was the impression of bulls when he took over for for Juan Castillo what was obviously the numbers looked bad looked atrocious what was the general feeling in Philadelphia while he was on staff there and when during that period in which he took over well I think when they hired this guy uh there was there was so much positive stuff out there about him a lot of people around the league were excited about him Prospect of him being a coordinator one day and the way Philadelphia brought him to the organization he wasn't you know the defensive coordinator at first it was it was Juan Castillo who was a converted offensive line coach and then Castillo got fired early in the season uh right in the Eagles bye early in the season and they replaced them with bows and it was it's kind of hard to gug uh bows in this time here because he didn't have the full off season to really set up his system he was kind of forced to work with what he had and forced to run a system that he really didn't want to run he was working with uh a team that was utilizing the wide nine defensive alignment up front with the defensive ends lining them out wide and that's that doesn't seem to be something that Todd BS really wanted to do so it it was just wasn't a good fit so it's kind of hard to gauge him on the results here obviously they weren't good and a lot of fans I think weren't really sad to see him go because of that but at the same time I think they might they understand that we didn't really get to see the true guy with his pieces and his formation and having the time to set all that up well that's interesting and then with the with the coaching change um you guys it it's really kind of interesting cuz now you guys over there in Philadelphia have a guy that we are familiar with and Billy Davis um and he was not highly thought of when he was here tell tell us about Billy Davis and the evolution of the defense since the start of the Season as as clearly the beginning of the season was very difficult defensively how's it going now right and and Davis came here with the same kind of uh well fans weren't exactly excited about him cuz you you saw the numbers you saw the track record and there's really not a lot to be impressed from there uh so a lot of fans weren't high in the move and then he came in here and he got off to the rough start the defense wasn't really playing that well to open the season so you know he was kind of just had a really bad start here but since then uh since a couple weeks now uh it's actually been seven weeks in a row where the Eagles have held their opponent to 21 points or less which is the best in the NFL uh in that span though their team has done that recently so they're not a top defense in the league they're not the Kansas City Chiefs they're not the Arizona Cardinals they're not the Seattle Seahawks but they're a defense right now that's playing good enough and the kind of the motto of this defense is the bend but don't break kind of cliche where they're going to allow yards the Eagles are I believe last or 31st and yards allowed but it doesn't matter because they're letting these teams get into the end zone and they're either forcing turnover or they're forcing them to keep the field goal so they're not allowing the points that the yards uh would attribute to normally so I think if the fans are starting to get excited about a defense stat it's not perfect but they can just get the job done they can be good enough is does Billy Davis I mean it the way he has the defense set up he obviously had worked for many years under under dicko does it look like that does it kind of have a philosophy like that where you could see Billy Davis you can see what Horton because Ray Horton was very much very much like dick laau system with with his own added wrinkles yeah I think you know we're seeing a three four defense here and that's something that's brand new in Philadelphia we hav't seen that before you're seeing uh you're seeing some guys who are transitioning from the 4-3 because obviously they only had the oneoff season to switch from the 4-3 to the 34 I think you're seeing uh what a Bill Davis defense is supposed to look like uh we're seeing you know we're starting to see pressure from uh blitzing and just just the front seven playing well and making tackles and getting pressure they they really got to RG3 last week and forced a turnover and just were on them all day and then on the outside you have the secondary which is it's not quite as polished as the the front seven but overall yeah I'm I think you're starting to see what the kind of Defense Billy Davis is supposed to be running and that's the one that Chip Kelly wanted I think he wanted defense one of the three four attacking defense that kind of forces turnovers and gets pressure and it's not going to be maybe the top rank defense in the league like I said but it's going to be good enough to help you win the game so where's the strength of the defense are there any individuals that that we should be looking at it that Cardinal fans will be seeing um attack the the offensive line obviously the offensive line has not been a shrink for the Cardinals how are they've been had better play adequate play over the last few weeks and when compared to last season at least that the sack numbers are way down the pressure numbers are still up there uh where does the strength in the defense lie the strength right now definitely lies in the Eagles front seven specifically the guys up front on the defensive line you Fletcher Cox former first round pick starting at defensive end on one side and he can get after the passer he's a great athlete he's very disruptive he can push the pocket he can also play against the run and then speaking of playing against the run you have Cedric Thorton who's a lesser known guy he was an undrafted free agent finded a couple years ago and he really has come on uh JJ Watt leads the league in uh run tackles uh stops on the run but Cedric Thorton is really right I think he's number two he's right behind him playing really well and he stopped the run and then you have a rookie Benny Logan who has taken over at no tackle the Eagles originally had added Isaac suaga to play that spot but then they traded him to the Patriots because they felt he was no longer needed and Logan against the Redskins last week was really pushing the pocket and getting pressure on RG3 so you look at this match up the the Cardinals offensive line that isn't playing so well and the Eagles front seven and specifically the defensive line that's getting pressure and attacking up front and I think that's uh and matchup that favors the Eagles potentially okay and then then in the defensive backfield obviously kind of the strength in in the Cardinals offense is a talented wide receiver with with Larry Fitzgerald who in his career has has been absolutely Dynamic against Philadelphia with he's averages about six catches a game almost 120 yards and almost a couple of touchdowns in the games that he's played against Philly but not only that now we have Michael Floyd over here the Cardinal have Michael Floyd who has kind of broken out and put together some very nice games uh what does the defensive secondary what will we see matched up um against Fitz and Floyd uh you're going to see oh well starting Eagles cornerback Bradley Fletcher has been out the past uh he he left uh the Raiders game early so he's been out a game or two here so he's back and that's big for the Eagles because he's not exactly the most he's not a playmaker by any means but he's solid and he's a physical Corner he's a bigger Corner uh which which helps the Eagles going up against the big wide receivers that the Cardinals have and on the other side you have Carrie Williams who he's not exactly a lock down quarter himself he's going to allow a lot of catches he allows a lot of yards but the positive about him is is a good tackler so once the wide receiver makes the catch he's not going to allow you to get a lot of yards after that catch and that's where they really start to uh tighten down when you see him in the red zone so it's going to be tough because uh for the Eagles that is because the Cardinals do have these good wide receivers that you mentioned and Eagles quarterbacks aren't as good but just the fact that the Eagles have these bigger Corners that's kind of their goal is to kind of match them up with bigger wide receivers Now we move to the other side of the ball obviously you have a a you've got Chip Kelly with his fast fast fast offense and it doesn't even look the the way it did to start the year as as Michael Vic has has suffered injuries and now Nick Foles has come in and played lights out now first of all what is different about folos this year because when we saw him last year and he played he was a turnover machine what yeah what is different well well the turnovers yeah right I mean he hasn't except for one fumble against the Packers which kind of a questionable play he isn't really turn the ball over at all he's thrown I think 18 touchdowns without a single interception that's pretty impressive and obviously those numbers are kind of GNA um aggress here at some point you would have to think but Nick FES has really he's matured in his second year and he showed maturation and he he's playing right now he's he's he still holds on to the ball for a decent amount of time at times but he's throwing what his wide receivers open he's reading the defense he's making the right reads when they're running the read option and uh you know sometimes he's keeping the ball himself and he's getting six yards or so he's not the fastest quarterback but he can try to get a couple yards here and there he actually outrushed RG3 when the Eagles and Redskins played last week so he he's just playing well right now and he just looks like a player that spent the time in the off season to to work on his game and polish his game and he entered a competition for the quarter between Nick FES and Michael Vic and fos didn't win it but I think it really helped push him forced himself to push him to get better and I think we're seeing uh the benefits of that competition right now so do Philly fans do the coaching staff that the buzz out there D they believe that fos could be the guy moving forward as their quarterback of the now and the future well for right now definitely Nick fos is the quarterback CH Kelly named him the official starter for the rest of the year so he definitely is the guy for right now barring an injury uh where Michael Vic would step back in until fos got better but now for night now Nick fols is the guy and moving forward it's it's a big question Philadelphia has to answer but there's really no better test than this upcoming uh schedule that the Eagles have here they have five games to go they're six and five uh the nft East is right for the taking if they win out that's going to be hard to do but they just need to play well down the stretch and specifically Nick FES needs to play well down the stretch because if he struggles here and let's say the Eagles go one and four then they're obviously not going to make the playoffs and I think a lot of people question if Nick fos is going to be the guy so now you talked about the read option with being a Pack 12 guy out here I I graduate from Arizona State I have a seasoned ticket holders at Arizona State myself so I see a lot of Pack 12 football and I've seen just the just the insane pace of Oregon football out here how similar how fast is it and how much read option I mean Bruce Aran said today was was quoted as saying the right read option is a good college offense how much read option are are is Philadelphia running running um as opposed to more traditional sets um I think you it's like anything tell he does he you know he's not always locked into a certain thing but he says it's a weapon that he can use when he wants to break it out just like the tempo is uh they do like to run the ball pretty fast uh in terms of moving the the the the ball after the play and you know getting off to the next play and that's something that they stressed in the Washington game this time just just last week it's not something they always do sometimes they run a little bit slower I think it really depends on the matchup uh so and depending on when you're seeing the red option again that's that's probably more of a matchup thing uh Nick FES you know he's not going to be the dynamic Runner that Michael Vic is or any kind of running quarterback is when he's executing the read option but like I said he he can run a respectable you know six yards here there pick up the first down or just you know help get a couple yards to set up a second in short and that's something we saw Washington so uh to answer your question I I think again it just all depends on the matchup so now so we've got the your the League's is it the League's leading rushing offenses am I correct right led by by Shady McCoy and the Cardinals have the SEC the League's second best rushing defense behind only the the New York Jets what do you something I mean something got you got the immovable a and a stoppable force what's going to what are we going to see what where do you see the matchups happening what do you see how successful do you think that the Philly offense can be against the against the Arizona defense looking at what they've done um they've really they they had two weeks in which they had a tough time with the with stopping the run and that was only late in the game against San Francisco when they were rallying l f f with the ball and it looked like they were about to take the lead and then then San Francisco went on an 18-play drive to kind of just kill any hopes the Cardinals had in which they they rushed the ball 12 times outside of that and and a little bit on the Seattle game they've been very very effective at stopping the Run how do you see that matching up at least with this offense well I think back to when the Eagles played the Packers in week 10 or so and the Packers had a top five run defense they still might uh the Packers were allowing an average of about 90.5 yards a game or so and the Eagles rushed for over 200 that day so they they they G the Eagles rushed for more than twice of what the Packers were allowing and I I think back to when the Eagles played the Chiefs uh in the third week of the Season uh the Chiefs kept the Eagles to low points on the board but the Eagles were moving the ball I think they they totaled something like 400 plus yards on offense so uh the Eagles they're probably not going to have too much trouble moving the ball of course I'm going to jinx it here by saying that but I I think they're going to be able to move the ball uh it it's going to be tough again because I doe respect and I think you have to give a lot of credit to the the Cardinals defense but the way Chip Kelly's offense is running sometimes it it just seems like it's an Unstoppable force uh as long as they're executing the only times they're really shut down is when they were playing the Giants and the Cowboys in that that home stretch in the middle of the Season where Michael Vic was hurt and they had to put Matt Barkley in and that was just a disaster he's a rookie and the other week Nick FES just it was unclear if he was injured or something but he just didn't look anything like the Nick fos we've seen and all the other games we've seen him this season so the Cardinals have a great defense like I said and it's going to be something's got to give here cu they have a great run defense and Eagles have a great run offense it's going to be interesting to see uh I like to give uh the tie to the runner I mean that that might sound like a homer piit here but I'm thinking Eagles offense uh they can work something out all right um speaking of Matt Markley um obviously the the stints that he had in the lineup didn't work out real well how has he been has there been any talk of him of how he is in the quarterback room in the practice field is there any sense that perhaps there is potential down the line that he could be a Frontline starter um I I was there for every day you know Eagles training camp and I watched him every day and I really just not see a guy who's ready to play in the NFL right now Matt Barkley definitely has some good traits about him I like his accuracy at times I like his his Poise I like his uh he does a good job of commanding the team moving to set up the ball you know he looks like a leader out there but he lacks some physical gifts and he lacks this this kind of NFL look to him right now we saw him in preseason again and then training camp I just I got I looked at a player and I just like that and I just did not see a guy who was ready to play right now so in terms of looking at the future and seeing what he could be in the future that's a big question mark I think uh the most realistic and ideal scenario is he he develops into like a very quality backup quarterback you know he's not a guy who's going to be rest starting in the NFL but he can come in for a game or two or whatever and hold the fort down while the starter uh would hopefully return a couple weeks in the future interesting well all right so now we one other question about the team in general um what is what has been this year the the woes at at your at there at the link what over the last what is it the last since 2010 Philadelphia's 10 and 19 at home how how does that especially since there's a couple of playoff appearances in there um how do you explain the the woses that they've had at home this season and in over the past few years in fact yeah before uh last week or the two weeks ago against the the Redskins the Eagles have not won a home game since September 30th 2012 so it's it's been a long time and it's it's really hard to say I mean know the fans I'm there every home game you know I'm in the Press Box see the fans you know they get up for the game and they get loud but I think the Eagles have just for whatever reason they just theyve played poorly at home and you know the fans I think they lose it early sometimes you'll see the Eagles maybe make a a bad play or something and then it kind of just discourages everyone and it kind of just takes the like it makes it flat kind of takes the breath out of everyone and kind of just takes away some of the fire uh I think that was totally changed when we saw the Eagles play the Redskins the week you could tell from the moment the game started they were into this you know they they knew how big of a game that was and they they know the team is is looking to be competitive again and I think they're really into it now I think they've turned a corner with that losing home streak okay got to do a couple things to wrap things up but I want to do one thing well one I going to give you a predic I have you give a prediction and that's the end right now uhu I want to give you kind of the keys of the game on from the perspective of the Eagles the Eagles will beat the Cardinals if complete that the Eagles will beat the Cardinals if the they can win the turnover battle I know that sounds simple and that you can almost say that for every game but I I I've been looking at the numbers and the Cardinals turn the ball over quite a bit I think it's sixth most most in the league on the other hand they have a defense that forces a lot of turnovers but I think the what we talked about before with the the matchup between the Eagles defensive line and the front seven and the Cardinal offensive line kind of being a weakness I think if they can rattle Carson Palmer and get to him and maybe force some fumbles or make some bad throws I think that could be a big key to the Eagles winning and and getting points off turnovers and maybe operating on short Fields against this tough Arizona defense okay and key match up what what's the matchup you're most excited for and what's the matchup you're least excited for looking at the game well least I'll start with least because that's that's the first thing that jumps into my mind and that's uh anyone pretty much who's going against Carrie Williams like I said because Carrie Williams is gonna give up a lot of yards he's gonna give up a lot of catches that's just what he does because he plays so far off as a man uh I'm guessing they're going to have Fitzgerald across from him or it might be Floyd I'm not sure what they're going to do or if they're going to switch or whatever but I think that's a matchup that scares me definitely because of the Eagles are going to have to deal with these big receivers and they just don't have the talent to deal with them and then as for of matchup that I do like um I like like I said I like the uh the Eagles defensive line against the Cardinals offensive line I think they're going to get pressure I think fetcher Cox specifically is going to have a big day he's gonna he's going to get by the Cardinal's offensive line Force some pressure get some sacks and one final thing your prediction Philadelphia according to Vegas is favored by three standard home team line do you what is your game prediction do they win and if they win do they cover and if you had to pick a final score what would be your prediction yeah it's going to be a close one so you know Philadelphia is the the favorite um by three points I think it's going to be 23 to 20 because you looked at this this Eagles team they haven't allowed 21 points or more in those seven games like I mentioned so I think they're going to that that's going to go to eight I think it's going to be a tough game it's not going to be an easy one by any means I think they they get a field goal late I think it's 2020 late and they get a game-winning field goal to make the score 23-20 Eagles win all right this is this is Revenge of the birds R you've been we've been listening to Brandon gon who is from bleedinggreennation.com our Philadelphia Eagles ESP Nation site you can follow Brandon at it's really simple at Brandon gon um last name GE W T N check out the check out the site bleedinggreennation.com it's it's a big one you've got Philly fans and they do a good job over there I appreciate your time Brandon and we will see how this goes on Sunday yes we will thanks for having me you've been listening to revenge of the bird keep the conversation going by visiting Revenge ofthe birds.com follow us on Twitter at Revenge ofb birds you can also find us on iTunes at facebook.com/ revenge of the birds [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh [Music]