The tryptophan and the Tom Collinses put us under during the second half of the Arizona Cardinals' game with the Philadelphia Eagles.
Sleep was a tender mercy, because replay of the last two quarters demonstrates that the Eagles continued to dine on Red Bird for the whole game. The 48-20 loss, in the town with a Rocky statue outside its Museum of Art, wasn't pretty.
You knew it was going to be bad from the first quarter when ancient but normally accurate Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner threw two interceptions. Before we had even begun to digest that late Thanksgiving lunch, the Cardinals were down 14-0 on two scores by running back Brian Westbrook (pictured).
It only got worse. Westbrook would wind up with four touchdowns running and receiving. He and beleagured quarterback Donovan McNabb simply killed the Cardinals. You would've never guessed that McNabb was on the Eagles shit list and benched in the team's losing effort against the Rams last Sunday. This game, he was unstoppable both passing and running.
It made us realize that the Cardinals aren't as as good as their 7-5 record. They play in the NFC Worst, where they're the only team with a winning record. Philadelphia, at 6-5-1, plays in the NFC East with the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys, and the Washington Redskins. Everybody in the division has a winning record.
And don't start crying about the short turnaround for the Cardinals, who played well but lost at home to the the best team in football, the 10-1 Giants, last Sunday. Or the fact that they had to travel to the East Coast. The Cardinals we saw against the Eagles just played horribly -- to a man. They would've lost this game at University of Phoenix Stadium after a bye week.
Even normally brilliant wide receiver Anquan Boldin dropped two easy passes and let an Eagles defender slap another one out of his grasp. The Cardinals defensive line was like a sieve. The Eagles, whose running game's been as bad as the Cardinals' this season, ran at will against Arizona's defense. There were so many missed tackles that Westbrook, reeling from injuries all year, looked like a greased pig.
But it was Warner who did most of the damage to his team. Not only did he have one of the worst first quarters of any quarterback ever, he continued to suck through the rest of the night, throwing a third interception in the fourth quarter.
This should've been a time when backup quarterback Matt Leinart got a little playing time. Or a lot. We had to wonder what Coach Ken Whisenhunt was thinking. Or if he was thinking. The so-called Cardinals quarterback of the future certainly couldn't have played any worse than the befuddled Warner.
We hate to say it, because we like what Whisenhunt's done in Arizona overall (the team's no longer a laughingstock), but the stumblebums he had on the field in Philadelphia looked like the Cardinals of old. A chorus of "same 'ol, same 'ol" could be heard across the PHX. -- Rick Barrs
