Five games up, five games down, and in the end, the Philadelphia Eagles remain the NFL's lone undefeated team. They've blown out foes on Monday Night Football, thrown certified sack parties, secured slobber knocker victories in the rain, and in Week 5, they pulled a rabbit out of a hat in quite possibly their most improbable W of the year.

Now, to some, the Eagles' Week 5 win was nothing but fool's gold – a Mickey Mouse win, if you will – and that the Arizona Cardinals did more to lose the affair than Nick Sirianni's squad did to win it. In a way, this statement holds true; had Kyler Murray run for just one more yard before sliding, had Jalen Thompson not bobbled a Jalen Hurts interception, and/or backup kicker Matt Ammendola had hit his 43-yard attempt, the game very well might have gone to overtime or worse, resulted in a 24-20 win by Arizona.

And yet, when a team is good, they find a way to win even the closest game; they catch a lucky break, take advantage of an opposing team's errors, and ultimately continue on towards their championship goals. Are the Eagles going to become the first team in NFL history to go 17-0? No, probably not, but hey, for the time being, the consensus best team in the NFL calls South Philadelphia home, and that is a pretty cool feeling.

3 takeaways from the Philadelphia Eagles' Week 5 win over Arizona.

3. C.J. Gardner-Johnson is figuring it out

C.J. Gardner-Johnson joined the Philadelphia Eagles on August 30, 2022. He didn't get to play for the team in the preseason, wasn't with the Birds in camp, and had to start at strong safety opposite Marcus Epps 12 days after landing at Philadelphia International Airport, which is a pretty quick turnaround even for the best of defensive backs, which CJGJ unquestionably is.

Though his seasons didn't begin on the best of footing, as the Florida product had a few mental errors and coverage faux pas through the first month of the season, he ultimately made more good plays than bad ones, even if his Pro Football Focus overall grade ranked him 72nd among 83 qualifying performers.

In Week 5, however, the Eagles' freshest face put on a show against the Cardinals, racking up a team-leading 10 tackles, all of which were of the solo variety, and recording a beautiful coverage interception off of Murray that has to be one of the true highlights of the game. Now granted, Gardner-Johnson did play a role in the lone passing touchdown the Eagles surrendered in the game, as Marquise “Hollywood” Brown caught a quick slant versus zone coverage, and both CJGJ and middle linebacker T.J. Edwards missed tackles before the former Baltimore Raven ran into the endzone, but for the most part, Philadelphia has to be happy with the returns on their late August investment.

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2. Philly's offense continues to evolve

The Philadelphia Eagles have now won five games in five different ways, and that is pretty darn cool; they've won games on the ground, won games through the air, won games with their defense, and even won games via special teams, with Jake Elliott coming in clutch in Week 4 despite suffering an ankle injury that kept him out of action in Week 5.

In Week 5, the Eagles got another big game from Hurts, who again turned in a fantasy football darling with 239 yards through the air, 61 yards on the ground, and two more rushing touchdowns to bring his total on the year to six. Through the air, Hurts continued on with his trend of distributing the ball around, with Dallas Goedert finishing out the game with the most receiving yards of any player on either team regardless of position with eight receptions for 95 yards, and DeVonta Smith following close behind with 10 receptions for 87 yards. Even A.J. Brown, who only caught three passes for 32 yards, played a solid role in the win, as his presence drew additional attention from the defense and opened things up for his teammates.

1. A win is a win

In the NFL, all that matters at the end of the day is the number in the win column; it doesn't matter if a team pulls out a series of nail-biters, is the beneficiary of breaks lucky, or blow out every opposing team they face with ease, at the end of the day, head coaches get fired if they don't produce and even the most understanding owner will grow tired of poor on-field results. At the end of the day, the Eagles defeated the Arizona Cardinals, remain the top team in the NFC East despite heavy competition from the New York Giants, the Washington Commanders, and the Dallas Cowboys, and at the end of the day, that's all that matters.