Eagles vs. Cardinals: Five matchups to watch

A week after their surprise victory over the Saints, the injury-plagued Philadelphia Eagles will hobble into Arizona this Sunday to take on the Cardinals. According to TheLines.com's consensus odds, Philadelphia is a six-point underdog for the 4:05 p.m. start. Back by popular demand, here are our five matchups to watch.

1) The Cardinals' receivers vs. the Eagles decimated secondary

Darius Slay (concussion), Avonte Maddox (knee), and Rodney McLeod (knee) are all out, which is less than ideal against a Cardinals offense with a very good wide receiving corps.

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They are of course led by DeAndre Hopkins, who has 94 catches for 1,155 yards and 5 TDs this season. Christian Kirk (38-512-6) has become sort of the second option in Arizona's passing game, with aging Eagle killer Larry Fitzgerald serving as the third option.

When the Eagles were without Slay, Maddox, and McLeod to finish the Saints game last Sunday, their lineup looked like so:

• CB Jalen Mills
• CB Nickell Robey-Coleman
• FS Marcus Epps
• SS K'Von Wallace

If the Eagles go with that personnel in Arizona, the guess here is that Michael Jacquet will come in on nickel downs, with Robey-Coleman shifting inside.

If you have DeAndre Hopkins on your fantasy football team, start him. #Analysis. 

2) The Cardinals' rushing attack against the Eagles' rushing defense

The Cardinals have a potent rushing attack, which of course is partly fueled by an athletic quarterback in Kyler Murray. Here is where the Cards rank in various rushing stats: 

The trio of Murray, Kenyan Drake, and Chase Edmonds account for 99.9 percent (literally) of the Cardinals rushing yards this season:

The Eagles' rush defense got wrecked by running quarterbacks early in the season, most notably by Lamar Jackson and Daniel Jones, but they've been much better of late against guys like Russell Wilson and Taysom Hill.

"I'd say that guys like Kyler Murray, guys like Lamar Jackson, Russell Wilson, we've faced a lot of guys that had similar skill sets, but all of them were unique," Jim Schwartz said on Tuesday. "All of them had a different way that they ran the ball. All of them had a different skill set passing. Whether they were throwing quick passes, whether they were scrambling to buy time to make big plays down the field. Every player stands on his own in the NFL and what we're going to try to do against Kyler Murray will be specific for his skill set and their offense. It won't be based on what we did against Russell Wilson or you name it, Lamar Jackson or any of the other guys that we've faced that are dual-threat quarterbacks.

"I think it's easy to put all those guys in one box, but everyone is very particular not just the way they have run it, but the way they use their legs to open the passing game. So yeah, our decisions on this week will be independent of anything we've seen from anybody else."

Some Murray highlights this season:

The Cardinals like to spread the field horizontally, which often opens up the middle of the field for Murray to run. It's a pretty safe bet that (a) facing a running quarterback, and (b) being undermanned in their secondary, Jim Schwartz is going to have little choice other than to play a ton of zone defense.

3) The right side of the Eagles' OL vs. Haason Reddick and the Cardinals' pass rush

The Cardinals' pass rush isn't anything special after they lost Chandler Jones for the season with a biceps injury. However, one player who has stepped up in Jones' absence has been Haason Reddick, who happens to be red hot after sacking Giants quarterbacks five times last Sunday.

The right side of the Eagles' offensive line will feature Nate Herbig at RG and Matt Pryor at RT. While there is rightful concern about Pryor's ability to handle speed rushers in one-on-one scenarios, it should be perhaps even more concerning that the Cardinals do a good job of mixing in stunts that will test Pryor's and Herbig's cohesion.

4) The Eagles' rushing offense vs. the Cardinals' weakened run defense

Like the Cardinals, the Eagles have a potentially potent rushing offense of their own with the duo of Miles Sanders and Jalen Hurts, who both went over 100 yards rushing against the Saints last Sunday.

The Cardinals will be without their best run-stopping defensive lineman in 6'3, 335-pound Corey Peters. They will also be without another massive D-Line starter in 6'6, 341-pound Jordan Phillips.

Here's what opposing rushing offenses have done against the Cardinals since Peters went down a month ago:

Facing some major obstacles on the defensive side of the ball, as well as some pass protection challenges on offense, the Eagles' best chance to win this game is if they get their rushing attack going, shorten the game, and hope the outcome is decided on a small handful of big plays.

5) Jake Elliott vs. himself

Elliott has missed easy kicks in each of the last three games.

He missed a PAT against the Seahawks, sapping momentum after a 15-play, 75-yard drive.

He missed another PAT against the Packers.

And finally, against the Saints, after an impressive drive by Jalen Hurts to close the first half, with the opportunity to add three, Elliott missed a 22-yarder. Oof.

The Eagles should just have Jason Peters suit up so he can remind Elliott that the Eagles have very little margin for error, and cannot afford any missed kicks, much less easy ones.

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