The Miami Dolphins hadn’t formally misplaced but to the Philadelphia Eagles earlier than Twitter wrote their obituary.
A typical takeaway? The Dolphins merely are too tender and finesse to beat a group just like the Eagles, who out-gained Miami by 111 yards and managed the ball for 13:26 extra minutes Sunday.
And definitely, the Eagles have been a handful within the trenches, significantly briefly yardage. The Tush Push is principally unstoppable and might need been decisive on Sunday.
However the Eagles very nicely might have performed the identical actual recreation and misplaced had the injury-ravaged Dolphins not self-destructed and had the officiating not been horrendous.
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Actual Motive Miami Dolphins Misplaced to Philadelphia Eagles
You gained’t discover that form of nuance in most of Monday’s commentary. Nevertheless it doesn’t imply it’s not true.
“I don’t assume we hearken to the surface noise with reference to how folks really feel about our group,” Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa mentioned postgame. “I feel a very powerful factor is the fellows within the locker room sticking collectively. There’s quite a lot of soccer to be performed, quite a lot of soccer. It’s a protracted season.”
The true motive the Dolphins misplaced? They couldn’t get out of their very own means.
Tyreek Hill dropped two passes he all the time catches. The particular groups have been spotty.
What’s extra, the Dolphins have been known as for 10 penalties. The Eagles have been known as for zero.
And whereas the officers actually stunk — a phantom roughing the passer on Christian Wilkins and a missed fourth-down facemask/DPI on James Bradberry have been collectively no less than a seven-point swing — let’s not act just like the Dolphins have been innocent.
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They usually lined up offsides and couldn’t get their very first offensive play of the sport off in time.
Even with all that being mentioned, it was nonetheless very a lot a recreation within the fourth quarter.
They’d the ball, down a landing, on the Eagles’ 24 when an in any other case strong Tagovailoa threw a horrible decide to Darius Slay, who peeled off his man to chop off a poorly thrown ball to Raheem Mostert.
“It was simply an underthrow,” Tagovailoa mentioned.
This ball appeared to hold within the air eternally. pic.twitter.com/dX2i2WTPYG
— Professional Soccer Community (@PFN365) October 23, 2023
From there, the Eagles did what they do finest: They leaned on a gassed protection with a game-sealing landing drive that lined 83 yards in 13 performs.
The Dolphins’ short-yardage protection was no match for the Tush Push — however that’s not a singular failure. Nobody can cease that play.
However back-to-back transformed fourth downs deep in their very own finish predictably led to a deep ball to A.J. Brown, who drew Kader Kohou in protection as a result of Xavien Howard and Jalen Ramsey have been each out.
The throw. The catch. Dangle it within the Louvre.pic.twitter.com/hqJeG0r2pJ
— Professional Soccer Community (@PFN365) October 23, 2023
However right here’s the reality:
Assuming the Dolphins’ damage luck modifications within the coming weeks, the Eagles beat the weakest doable model of this group, one which was with out three offensive linemen and Jaylen Waddle for key stretches Sunday.
Generally, you get manhandled. And generally, you simply lose due to boneheaded errors. Sunday’s Dolphins loss was the latter, similar to the Eagles’ loss to the Jets in Week 6 was.
“It’s a must to really feel what it’s wish to play such a great group on the highway,” Mike McDaniel mentioned postgame. “The margin for error is so small. It’s an essential constructing block alongside your development for the season.
“When you’re going to lose video games, you need it to be in opposition to a extremely good group, and also you need it to harm. The gathering of coaches and gamers within the locker room proper now are hurting as a result of, , they really feel like they left some performs on the sphere for positive.”
Tagovailoa added, “It is a good, good check early within the season. You realize, folks can say the penalties this, the penalties that. Like for us as a group, we’re not throwing that as an excuse, . They went on the market, they did what they needed to do to win that recreation, and we didn’t do sufficient to win that recreation.”
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