The Arizona Cardinals suffered a gut-wrenching 20-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday afternoon at State Farm Stadium. After another slow start, they rallied to tie the game and put themselves in position to tie it at the end of regulation.
However, in the end, kicker Matt Ammendola, signed at the beginning of the week to replace Matt Prater, who was out with a hip injury, missed a 43-yard field goal wide right that would have likely sent the game into overtime.
That wasn’t the only thing that went wrong at the end.
There were several things that didn’t go the Cardinals’ way — either mistakes or things that just went wrong.
Listen to the latest from Cards Wire’s Jess Root on his podcast, Rise Up, See Red. Subscribe on Apple podcasts or Spotify.
Latest show:
Previous shows:
and
Missed tackle of Dallas Goedert
With less than five minutes left and the Eagles driving with the ball on what would be the possession when they kicked the game-winning field goal, they had third-and-12 and Jalen Hurts completed a pass to tight end Dallas Goedert. Dennis Gardeck misses the initial tackle and Goedert turns it into a 16-yard gain to give the Eagles a first down.
If Gardeck could have made that tackle immediately, it would have likely been fourth down and the Eagles perhaps attempt a field goal with more than three and a half minutes left in the game.
But the drive was extended and they were to eat another two minutes before the Cardinals got the ball.
Injury forced Cardinals to use final timeout
On third down at the Arizona five-yard line, the Cardinals pressured Hurts into a throw that was almost intercepted. Jalen Thompson broke up the pass, forcing the fourth down.
However, he was hurt on the play and, even though the clock was stopped, because it was in the final two minutes of the game, when a player is down, it forces the team to use a timeout.
It was the Cardinals’ final timeout of the game. They began their final drive with 1:45 remaining in the game and no timeouts.
Kelvin Beachum penalized
On their final drive, Kyler Murray ran 15 yards to start things off and then completed a seven-yard pass to Zach Ertz to make it second-and-3. Beachum was called for a false start, pushing the ball back five yards and making it second-and-8, setting up the next mistake.
Kyler Murray misses a wide-open Ertz
After the false start, Zach Ertz is wide open across the field. There was a lot of open field. Murray just missed him, overthrowing him by a little bit.
Cardinals think they have a first down
On second-and-10 from Philadelphia’s 34-yard line, Murray takes off for a run and he slides to end the play. Murray, the Cardinals, the coaches and everyone in the stadium believed he picked up the first down the stadium clock operator had a first down indicated for everyone to see.
That led to Kliff Kingsbury calling for a spike to stop the clock. However, the officials moved the ball back “several yards,” according to Kingsbury after the game, making it third-and-1.
Murray spiked the ball, making it fourth down.
At that point, not knowing it was not a first down, they had no choice but to spike it.
That is when they decided to kick the 43-yard field goal that would have tied the game.
Ammendola misses the kick
Ammendola, signed after a Monday tryout to fill in for Matt Prater, had the distance on the kick but it went wide right.
The Eagles called timeout initially, but the ball was never snapped and he didn’t get to kick it once.
He di go through his kicking motion after the timeout was called but ultimately missed it and the Cardinals lost.
Ammendola said after the game that the kick felt good off his foot and he thought it was going to be good.
