The Philadelphia Eagles responded after losing to the New York Jets last week with a resounding 31-17 win against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday. Here’s what you need to know:
- Trailing 24-17 early in the fourth quarter, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was picked off by Eagles cornerback Darius Slay at Philadelphia’s 1-yard line.
- Eagles QB Jalen Hurts connected with receiver A.J. Brown for 42 yards on Philly’s next drive. Eagles running back Kenneth Gainwell capped off the 13-play, 83-yard march downfield with a 3-yard touchdown run, giving Philadelphia a 31-17 lead.
- Down two scores, the Dolphins had to go for it on fourth-and-10 on their own 25 and Eagles rookie Eli Ricks broke up Tagovailoa’s pass intended for Tyreek Hill. Miami was 0-for-2 on fourth down and now 2-for-9 on fourth down this season (22.2 percent), the second-lowest rate in the NFL.
- Hurts went 23-of-31 passing for 279 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. The Eagles posted 355 yards of total offense while the Dolphins — who entered Sunday averaging 498.7 yards per game — only recorded 244.
Follow live coverage of today’s Black Friday NFL Game, Dolphins vs. Jets
Eagles show they are a contender
The Eagles vowed to use last week’s loss as motivation to improve. Brown predicted that the loss to the Jets would “light a fire under everybody’s ass.” Hurts called it “a character builder.”
Both assessments appeared accurate Sunday night as the Eagles delivered an authoritative 31-17 victory over the Dolphins to improve to 6-1. They produced the kind of performance that you would expect from a true contender, exhibiting dominance on both sides of the ball. — Mike Jones, senior NFL writer
GO DEEPER
Eagles get their groove back in beating Dolphins with signature toughness and aggression
Eagles play complementary football
Nick Sirianni displayed great confidence in his players when he decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 from his own 26 with 11 minutes left. The signature sneak proved automatic and the Eagles kept marching downfield. On the same drive, they faced fourth down again, and once again, plowed their way forward for another first down.
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Fueled by their coach’s belief in them, the Eagles delivered a knockout punch while marching 83 total yards and chewing up 6 minutes and 35 seconds worth of clock to distance themselves and leave the Dolphins with little time to operate. Then came yet another defensive stand to deny Miami on fourth down with 3:19 left. It was truly a display of complementary football. — Jones
Dolphins offensive line banged up
Miami’s offensive line came into this game hurt. Left tackle Terron Armstead and center Connor Williams were out, and then left guard Isaiah Wynn got hurt on Miami’s first drive and had to be replaced by backup offensive lineman Lester Cotton. Cotton’s holding penalty negated what would have been Miami’s first touchdown of the game in the first quarter and then he had a false start.
The key to this Miami season is keeping Tagovailoa healthy, and any injury to the offensive line is worrisome. — Kalyn Kahler, senior NFL writer
Eagles shut down Dolphins run game
Philadelphia totally shut down Miami’s run game in the first half. Miami had negative seven rushing yards in the first half, thanks to Eagles linebacker Hasaan Reddick making a home for himself in Miami’s backfield. Miami is so good at running around the edges of a defense but it wasn’t until the third quarter that running back Raheem Mostert finally broke loose around the right edge of the Eagles’ defense for 21 yards.
And guess who wasn’t on the field for that play? Reddick. The second half wasn’t much better for Miami’s run game, considering they were averaging 181 yards rushing per game, and they finished with just 45 rushing yards. — Kahler
Dolphins’ losses are similar
Miami’s second loss this season looked a lot like their first. The Eagles front four pressured Tagovailoa and sacked him three times. The Bills, who handed Miami their first loss this year, sacked Tagovailoa four times in that game, and aside from these two opponents, which have the best defenses Miami has faced this year, Tagovailoa hadn’t seen much pressure.
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He’s been pressured the least of any starting quarterback, on just 22.8 percent of his dropbacks (the league average is 35 percent). This Miami offense is record-setting, unless they face a physical defense with a top defensive line. There are a lot of questions facing these Dolphins now. Does it matter if you have a record-setting offense if you still can’t beat a top defense? — Kahler
Highlight of the game
AJ BROWN YOU ARE RIDICULOUS
📺: #MIAvsPHI on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/0rIJPFKW6L pic.twitter.com/nHBEYMGNT4— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2023
Key stat
The Dolphins tied the game 17-17 with 4:02 left in the third quarter on a pick-six by LB Jerome Baker.
In the final 19:02 of the game, the Eagles outscored Miami 14-0, outgained Miami 156-50, converted 10 first downs to three and forced a turnover after the Dolphins had moved the ball inside the Philly 30-yard line.
Required reading
- The Athletic’s Dolphins vs. Eagles live blog
- NFL Week 7 takeaways: Ravens look like real contenders; Chiefs’ D swarms Chargers
- What we learned in NFL Week 7: Will real Bills stand up? Rams, Packers frustrated
(Photo: Bill Streicher / USA Today)