Gang Green - 30 Immediate Takeaways from Eagles 31, Dolphins 17
In homage to the kelly green era, Eagles fans were treated to a football game in which the defense was better than the offense.
Yeah, sure, the Birds put up 31 points to improve to 6-1, but with Jalen Hurts turning the ball over twice, and in hideous fashion, it was Sean Desai’s unit that picked up where it left off in Week 5, holding a high-powered Miami offense to just 10 points while intercepting Tua Tagovailoa on the goal line in what amounted to the biggest play of the game.
It was an immense performance from the defense, which logged eight tackles for loss, six QB hits, and four sacks. They limited Miami to a 4-11 third down mark and knocked down three passes. They got stops, got off the field, and held the Dolphins to just 45 rushing yards on 12 carries. You could have fooled me, because it looked like Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, and Eric Allen were out there on Sunday night.
To the takeaways:
1) Kelly Green looked really nice. Clean and sharp, and cool to see this current group of players wearing the same colors that Reggie White and Harold Carmichael wore. I just don’t understand the movement to “make kelly green the permanent color.” For who? For what? You can mix and match and have a lot more flexibility in the contemporary NFL, which allows a home look, road look, and two alternates. Not saying the Eagles need to become Oregon, because they can’t do something different every game, but you throw different looks out there – kelly green, midnight green, all-white, etc. You don’t even need a “permanent” motif.
2) Beautiful opening drive, until the red zone. What a wretched sequence that was. Two Jalen Hurts runs bookending a Kenny Gainwell carry that went for a yard. Horrendous, especially that off-tackle look on first down that didn’t even get back to the line of scrimmage.
3) Miami with a delay of game before running a single play? I blame Tua’s PitchCom.
4) But for real, a wonderful defensive series to start. They gave up a downfield completion to Tyreek Hill on what looked like a max protect, but Haason Reddick with the big tackle for loss to put Miami behind the sticks, and then Josh Sweat blew up the third down play to force a punt.
5) Keeping track of the obligatory bump shots, we had:
- the Rocky Statue
- a drone shot up South Broad looking at City Hall
- Art Museum/Rocky Steps
- etc
6) The Hurts fumble.. dunno. If you know what exactly he was doing there, you let me know. You want to see him hang in there a little bit more, instead of bailing to his right like he typically does, but he just held on to it way too long.
7) Good thing Miami got flagged for holding on that negated touchdown, because Darius Slay got cooked in coverage. You can’t introduce yourself as “Big Play” on the broadcast and then get smoked that badly (more on that later).
8) The broadcast correctly noted that the refs screwed up the first Brotherly Shove. Miami was offside. Philadelphia was not. They misidentified Jason Kelce’s arm and thought it was Landon Dickerson’s arm, OR, they’re filthy cheats and got the call from upstairs to flag the shove:
9) That “roughing the passer” call on Miami’s DT was also a joke. Bad call favoring the Eagles.
10) I liked how they set up the Dallas Goedert screen pass touchdown. They went 11 personnel but had him lined up wide, then froze the D for a split second with that play action to the field side, which mirrors the mechanics of their zone read and RPO looks:
A @goedert33 spike on #NationalTightEndsDay is a MUST pic.twitter.com/Mn6PthkId1
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 23, 2023
11) Julio Jones got a nice pop when he caught that second quarter pass. That ended up being his only target.
12) Did anyone else scratch their head after the 3rd and 4 scramble that Hurts converted with his feet? It SURE looked like he was pulling up a bit. Something is off with his running, like he’s got some secret injury he’s been carrying all year. There were conflicting reports that he came out of the locker room at halftime wearing a brace, but it wasn’t visible on TV and the broadcast didn’t mention anything about it.
13) That said, he’s still evasive when bailing from the pocket, and making incredible plays like this:
JALEN HURTS WHAT A PLAY
📺: #MIAvsPHI on NBC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/0rIJPFKW6L pic.twitter.com/stnzXrnr0W— NFL (@NFL) October 23, 2023
It really only shows up, the gimpy thing, when he’s hauling ass, or at least attempting to. His pocket movement is clean, and he’s able to evade pressure more often than not. It’s really strange/fascinating to watch when he has some open field and can’t seem to hit the gas pedal like he did last year.
14) Nobody hates the Brotherly Shove more than Joe Schad, who got a nice dose of it on Sunday night:
The first Tush Push resulted in offsetting penalties
They tried another one and made it
Cheaters
Cheap play
— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) October 23, 2023
Calling the Eagles “cheaters” for running a totally legal play is the epitome of corny.
15) Jalen Carter paid homage to Kyle Lowry and Neymar on this flop, flop, flopadelphia:
— Kevin Kinkead (@Kevin_Kinkead) October 23, 2023
16) Loved seeing Nolan Smith get that sack before halftime. Yeah, he was left unblocked, but he chased Tua down for the loss. Smith was a victim of preseason hype and hasn’t played much, but something like that can get him going.
17) Tyreek Hill totally torched an Eagles bracket on that touchdown, but the real killer on that drive was the 3rd and 18, when it looked like Reddick was holding back and playing some sort of pseudo-spy role. They really only sent three guys after Tua and one got pancaked in a double team.
18) Late touchdown aside, they held Miami to one touchdown and just 10:04 time of possession in the first half. That was the key to success coming into this one.
19) Miami losing Jaylen Waddle for most of the first three quarters was a significant storyline in this game. He was coming into this one on a two-game scoring streak with 19 targets in Weeks 4 and 5. The absence of a bona fide WR2 until the end of Q3 really made things easier on a depleted Eagles secondary that was down multiple starters.
20) Lane Johnson allowed his first sack since 2020. Oh well!
21) What the hell was up with that third quarter play where Derek Barnett was lined up in coverage? It looked like Miami moved early, but nothing. No flag.
22) Hill dropping that pass and then Miami missing on 4th and 3 on a blown facemask call was, uh, I’m not sure, but we’ll take it. Let’s call it a make-up call for Eli Apple bearing down on A.J. Brown a bit early. (also not sure what the hell the Dolphins were doing with Hill off the field for that attempt)
23) The pick-6 was abysmal. An abomination. They tried throwing an RPO there, but Hurts had two guys bearing down on him, not one, and so the second guy tipped the pass, and boom, tie game. The initial read was actually fine, since the first rusher was crashing down on the running back, but I guess Hurts just pulled it thinking he could throw it anyway and take the hit. In hindsight, he probably should have just audibled out of that based on the look Miami was showing.
24) Brutal collision between two Dolphins players. Can’t believe they both walked off the field on their own. David Long didn’t re-enter during that drive, however, which was a huge advantage for the Birds and something that I thought flew under the radar.
25) I laughed out loud when Mike Tirico said that St. Joe’s Prep was “five minutes north of the Linc.” Maybe 5 minutes if you have a private helicopter piloted by Chesley Sullenberger.
26) Give Hurts a lot of credit for how he responded to the pick-6. They went 75 yards on eight plays in which Jalen completed 5 of 6 passes and scrambled for a first down. That’s how you bounce back.
27) Big Play Slay! Needed that interception badly. Beautiful inside pressure to put Tua on his back foot. That pass had no chance.
(the Eagles do not have a lot of picks this year, actually came into this game with just two, which was tied for dead-last in the NFL)
28) Those fourth quarter shoves were beautiful. ROLL THAT BLOUNT! Run the damn ball!
29) The Eagles committed zero penalties. Or, we should say they were flagged for zero penalties, because they definitely committed a few.
30) Final time of possession: Eagles 36:43, Dolphins 23:17