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PHILADELPHIA – The folks in charge of music at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday probably were just paying homage to Tom Petty and not mocking the Cardinals when they played “I Won’t Back Down” during a break in the first quarter.

But it didn’t seem that way at the time, because all the Cardinals did in the first quarter was back down. Standing their ground seemed the last thing on their minds.

The result was a 34-7 loss, one of the Cardinals’ worst performances in four-plus seasons under coach Bruce Arians.

“I think this is one of those games, everybody’s looking for an excuse or some way to point their finger,” Arians said. “I’ve got to point it at me because our team obviously was not ready to play in all three phases. Blame me.”

Or maybe the Cardinals (2-3) are just that bad right now and the Eagles (4-1) are good. For three hours on Sunday, it looked like one of the worst teams in the NFC playing one the best.

The Eagles converted in all kinds of third-down situations, long and short. They ran efficiently and threw the ball over the Cardinals’ heads. They returned punts that set up touchdowns. Three of their touchdown “drives” lasted only three plays. They pressured Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer and shut down every runner he handed off to.

The 21 points scored by the Eagles in the first quarter tied for the second-most by a Cardinals opponent since 1940. The most came in 2011 when the Vikings scored 28 in the first quarter.

“They almost put the game out of reach,” defensive tackle Frostee Rucker said. “When you put three scores on any team, it is very tough to come back from.”

The Cardinals will spend the next couple days finding “what went wrong, what went so wrong,” Palmer said. “I just feel like we didn’t give ourselves a chance with some of the things that went wrong.”

Nearly everything went wrong for the Cardinals, little and big.

The Cardinals rushed for just 31 yards, and their longest play was just 28. The Eagles, meanwhile, had touchdown passes of 72 and 59 and punt returns of 19 and 76.

Covering punts has been a consistent problem through five games for the Cardinals, one that’s getting worse, not better. On the 76-yarder, the Cardinals appeared to have Kenjon Barner pinned against the sideline, but a missed tackle by tight end Ifeanyi Momah let Barner into the open field. Once there, the Cardinals were no match, and he returned it to the Cardinals’ 15.

Cardinals long snapper Aaron Brewer suffered a broken wrist on that play, an injury that foreshadowed another failure late in the half.

Down 21-7, the Cardinals were in position for a field goal late in the second half, but the 51-yard attempt by Phil Dawson was blocked. The snap by backup Evan Boehm was a bit slow, said Arians, who credited Boehm for doing the best he could.

“I felt much better going into halftime at 21-10,” Arians said, “but then to have it blocked was big.”

Nothing could be as worse as the way the Cardinals started the game, but their performance after halftime approached it. The Eagles scored 10 points on their first two possession to take a 31-7 lead.

Quarterback Carson Wentz threw for four touchdowns in the game, including three on third downs. In the first quarter alone, the Eagles converted on third and 11 twice and were 8 of 12 on third downs through the third quarter.

“There’s a lot that went on in this game today, so it’s tough to point out what really hurt us,” cornerback Patrick Peterson said. “We have to go watch the film on the way back home and talk about it tomorrow. We have a pretty good understanding of what cost us defensively to give up so many points.”

Peterson declined to reveal specifics.

Under Arians, the Cardinals defense has blitzed as much as any team in the NFL, but the downside of that style was evident on Sunday.

When the Cardinals rushed six people, the Eagles blocked them and were able to find receivers downfield.

“We blitzed and didn’t get home,” Arians said. “If you send six you can only double one of them, so one of those guys has to get home, and we didn’t win those matchups.

“It was the same thing offensively. They were rushing four and getting to our quarterback.”

Afterward, the Cardinals said all the usual things: There is plenty of time left in the season. They won’t point fingers. They will look in mirrors.

Unsaid, however, was that nearly a third of the season is over, and the Cardinals have not come close to looking like a playoff contender.

“I thought this game was going to be a game where we started to separate ourselves,” Peterson said.

Maybe they did, just not in the way Peterson and others had hoped.

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