The Philadelphia Eagles moved to 5-0 after escaping with a 20-17 win on the road against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday.
Thus far this season, the Eagles have not been in many close games. In fact, coming into the game against the Cardinals, Philadelphia’s average margin of victory is 11 points.
However, learning how to win close games is essential, and the Eagles did just that. With the game tied at 17 in the fourth, Philadelphia had a 17-play, 70-yard drive, which set up a 23-yard game-winning field goal from Cameron Dicker. Arizona had one final shot, but Matt Ammendola’s 43-yard field goal went wide right, and the Eagles survived.
On Monday, Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said he would like to blow out every team, but he’s okay with just winning.
“Yeah, I would love to win every game by a lot,” he said. “I really would. Those are a lot less stressful. You know you played a good game when you hold them to 7, and you score 30, or whatever it is, right?
“But that’s not the reality of this league. You’re going to go through the grind. In fact, more games are going to be like they were yesterday than they were for our first couple games — or for our Washington game or our Minnesota game. There is a heck of a lot more games like yesterday than those couple games.
“So, you just like to be able to win any way. You go through it, and you’re happy with the win, no matter what. You’re dissatisfied with the things that you want to correct. First of all, as coaches, and then secondly as the players.
“So, you just try to go through and fix that as you would, but of course, there are benefits to winning every way, and you say to yourself, well, we’re going to be in those games more so than not, so it’s good when you win those games obviously.”
Again, as the schedule goes along, the win the Eagles had on Sunday will benefit them more than any blow out.
