Eagles Don’t Falter in the Fourth

This time, the fourth quarter belonged to Philadelphia.

The Eagles, the victims of five fourth-quarter comebacks by Arizona’s Jake Plummer, stopped three drives in the final 15 minutes Sunday and held on for a 21-7 victory over the Cardinals to stay one-half game ahead of New York in the NFC East.

The fourth-ranked Eagle defense prevailed even though Plummer passed for 154 of his 293 yards in the final period and sealed the win when linebacker Barry Gardner forced Michael Pittman to fumble on a dive into the end zone. Derrick Burgess recovered with 2:55 to play.

“The defense played a good, solid game,” Eagle Coach Andy Reid said. “They came in and really challenged themselves versus the run.”

In the first half, Donovan McNabb threw scoring passes of eight and 54 yards to James Thrash, and Brian Mitchell returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for the Eagles (4-3).

“We tried to get back to what we did earlier in the season, and connected on some different routes and got everyone involved,” McNabb said.

It was Mitchell’s 12th kick-return touchdown of his career, tying him with Eric Metcalf for first in career touchdowns on kickoff or punt returns.

Tywan Mitchell scored on a two-yard pass from Plummer in the second quarter. But the Cardinals (2-5) otherwise spun their wheels.

Arizona beat the Eagles, 21-20, four weeks ago in Philadelphia as Plummer hooked up with MarTay Jenkins on a 35-yard scoring play in the final seconds.

Philadelphia punted to Arizona on the first play of the fourth this time and set up to defend its 14-point lead.

Plummer passed for four first downs on his first attempt at a rally, but N.D. Kalu ended the drive with a sack.

On Arizona’s next possession, an 18-yard pass from Plummer to David Boston got the Cardinals to the Eagle 33, but Plummer threw incomplete three times, and another pass to Boston gained only nine yards, so the ball went over.

Arizona got the ball again with 6:12 to play, and Plummer moved the Cardinals 79 yards before Pittman fumbled.

With seconds remaining, Damon Moore intercepted Plummer’s pass on the first play after Arizona got the ball back for a fourth time.

“We’re going to continue to fight together as a football team, but we’ve got to make our living on Sundays,” Arizona Coach Dave McGinnis said. “The last two Sundays we haven’t gotten it done.”

The Cardinals usually start slowly, and this time things went bad quicker than usual. Brian Mitchell took the first kickoff up the middle, juked at midfield to elude kicker Bill Gramatica and sprinted to the end zone.