Dolphins fall short, 31-17, in prime-time road loss to Eagles
The Dolphins’ defense could only watch late, as the Eagles’ offense approached the line of scrimmage for the inevitable.
Quarterback Jalen Hurts crouched under center before taking the snap and ducking his head underneath a heap of mass for conversion after conversion on the decisive fourth-quarter drive.
A diving 42-yard completion to wide receiver A.J. Brown, with cornerback Kader Kohou and safety DeShon Elliott in coverage, then set up a 3-yard touchdown run by running back Kenneth Gainwell that put Miami behind by two touchdowns with less than five minutes remaining.
If that score didn’t close the door on a Dolphins comeback bid, the prompt turnover on downs, with Eagles defenders sacking quarterback Tua Tagovailoa on consecutive plays, did it, sealing a 31-17 road loss on Sunday night.
The only Week 7 matchup between a pair of 5-1 teams was billed as a potential Super Bowl preview and a litmus test for the Dolphins, who were off to the franchise’s best start since 2002 and viewed as one of the NFL’s elite teams but had not registered a victory against a team with a current winning record.
Facing the reigning NFC champions, the Dolphins (5-2) left Lincoln Financial Field with a performance rife with miscues, missed opportunities and one not good enough to beat one of the NFL’s elite squads.
“It’s tough when you come on the road against a really good team and you’re not able to execute the way you expected to execute,” said Tagovailoa, who completed 23 of 32 passes for 216 yards, one touchdown and an interception. “But you have to give props to those guys and their coaching staff. They did a real good job in preparing for us. Some things went well for us, some things we’re just trying to figure out there. But overall we just have to get better.”
The Dolphins trailed by 14 in the second quarter, but came back to tie the game at 17 in the third quarter after inside linebacker Jerome Baker returned an interception of Hurts 22 yards for a touchdown, one of two takeaways for Miami’s defense.
The score, with 4:02 left in the third quarter, would be the last for the Dolphins, though. On the ensuing drive, Hurts orchestrated an eight-play, 75-yard touchdown drive, finding Brown for a 14-yard touchdown pass to retake a 24-17 lead. With cornerback Xavien Howard sidelined because of a groin injury and fellow corner Jalen Ramsey not yet ready to be activated from injured reserve, Brown caught 10 passes for 137 yards.
With an opportunity to tie the game after the score, the Dolphins’ offense drove into Philadelphia territory on its next drive, getting as close as the 24-yard line. But on third-and-8, Tagovailoa was intercepted by cornerback Darius Slay, who undercut a deep pass intended for running back Raheem Mostert, with 11 minutes remaining in the game.
“It was just an underthrow,” Tagovailoa said. “That’s all it was. It was nothing more than just an underthrow.”
The takeaway proved to be costly, as the Eagles (6-1) executed a methodical six-minute drive — marked by a pair of conversions on their famed “Tush Push” — before Gainwell’s score. The first conversion came on fourth-and-1 from the Philadelphia 26 after Miami appeared to force a three-and-out. Hurts, who totaled 300 yards and three touchdowns, moved the chains again on a fourth-and-1 play from Philadelphia’s 37-yard line.
The Dolphins’ offense entered the game averaging 37 points but was held to just 17, tied for a season-low, and didn’t reach the end zone outside of a 27-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Tyreek Hill (11 catches, 88 yards), which cut Miami’s deficit to 7, 17-10, before halftime.
The Dolphins’ No. 1 rushing offense was held to just 45 yards on 12 carries and the majority of that total came from consecutive runs from Mostert, who picked up 21 and 15 yards on the second drive of the second half.
Without much of a running game to lean on, the Dolphins’ struggled to block the Eagles’ talented defensive front. Tagovailoa was sacked three times, two of which came on Miami’s final possession, but faced pressure throughout the night. Already playing without starting left tackle Terron Armstead and center Connor Williams because of injuries, those issues were only exacerbated by the absence of left guard Isaiah Wynn, who injured his quad on the opening possession and did not return.
“We were behind the chains more than we were used to,” coach Mike McDaniel said. “We had some small nuance details of some plays that, hats off to the Philadelphia Eagles because they made us pay every time we — maybe our track was a little too tight, or too wide or an offensive lineman was a hair off. We rely on the running game to have a successful offense. We got it going a little too late in the game, so that is something that we take pride in and will be sure to get better from moving forward.”
Self-inflicted mistakes also cost the Dolphins. They were flagged for 10 penalties, and Miami did not accept a single penalty against Philadelphia. At least one, a holding penalty on Lester Cotton, filling in for Wynn, negated a Hill touchdown catch and forced Miami to settle for a field goal on its second drive. Another, a roughing the passer penalty on defensive lineman Christian Wilkins, extended an Eagles drive that led to a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Goedert two plays later, giving Philadelphia a 10-3 lead in the second quarter.
Wilkins did shove Hurts with two hands after he released the ball but it was a questionable penalty, one of many in what was a jarring discrepancy of calls and no-calls.
Neither Tagovailoa nor McDaniel wanted to blame officiating for the final result, though.
“People can say the penalties this, the penalties that. Like for us as a team we aren’t throwing that out as an excuse,” Tagovailoa said. “They went out there. They did what they had to do to win that game. We didn’t do enough to win that game so it is what it is. We’ll go into tomorrow and learn from that. We’ll get ready for New England.”
Despite the loss, the Dolphins remain in sole possession of first place in the AFC East as a result of the Buffalo Bills’ road loss to the New England Patriots, whom Miami will host next weekend. And a Week 9 matchup with the 6-1 Kansas City Chiefs in Germany figures to have more far-reaching implications than a non-conference game.
Tagovailoa said there are positives to take away from the game, in a playoff-type atmosphere on the road. McDaniel said the result would be a learning experience for a young team still learning how to win big games consistently.
But it was another performance that fell short of expectations against one of the NFL’s better squads, almost a month after the team was blown out by Buffalo on the road.
“You have to feel what it’s like to play such a good team on the road,” McDaniel said. “Your margin for error is so small, and it’s an important building block along your progression for the season, you know. If you’re going to lose games, you want it to be against a really good team, and you want it to hurt. The collection of coaches and players in the locker room right now are hurting because they feel like they left some plays on the field for sure. You know, losses, if approached the right way, if you’re not pointing fingers and you’re looking internally, can be a good thing too. So that’s what we’ll be determined to make this moving forward, starting with tomorrow.”
This story was originally published October 22, 2023 at 11:25 PM.
