Eagles Show NFL They're Still NFC's Top Contender with Dominant Win over Dolphins

Sunday night's showdown between the Miami Dolphins and Philadelphia Eagles was billed as a potential Super Bowl preview—a battle of the NFL's most prolific offense against one the league's best defenses.

Well, the old saying is that "defense wins championships," and while it's a long way to Las Vegas and Super Bowl LVIII, in Week 7 it was the Eagles defense that won the day. And in dominating the trenches on both sides of the ball in a 31-17 win over the Dolphins, Philly sent a clear message to the rest of the NFC.

Last week's loss to the New York Jets was an aberration—and the Eagles remain the favorite to represent their conference at Allegiant Stadium in February.

The Philly defense faced quite the task on Sunday night. The Dolphins had been scoring points and chewing up yards at a historic pace. Entering Sunday's game, Miami was averaging a staggering 498.7 yards of offense per game. The Dolphins were scoring 37.2 points per contest.

Earlier in the week, linebacker Nakobe Dean acknowledged that the Dolphins are playing lights-out offensively, but he also expressed confidence that the Eagles cold hold Miami in check if they just stuck to their assignments and played to their potential.

"I have all the respect for Miami and what they are doing on offense," Dean said, via Dave Spadaro of the team's website. "They're first in the league in passing and in rushing. They lead the NFL in scoring. They have so much speed and a lot of weapons. We just have to play our game. This isn't a track meet. It's football and we know we have to follow our assignments and communicate with all the motions and things they do. It's a challenge and we have to be ready everywhere on the field. We know what we can do so let's just go out there and play hard and have fun."

While speaking to reporters this week, Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai echoed a similar refrain, stating that containing Miami's explosive offense was going to be a tall task, especially with a banged-up defensive backfield.

"There's a lot of things to troubleshoot," Desai said. "They're extremely fast, extremely explosive. I think Coach McDaniel does a great job, and Coach (Frank) Smith over there on offense, they do a great job, and they've got playmakers at all levels of the offense and attack all levels of our defense. So, it'll be a fun week to try and prepare for them and get our guys in position to go make some plays for us."

Those injuries included veteran cornerback Darius Slay, who sat out the Jets loss with a knee injury. Slay was questionable for Sunday's game, but per Olivia Reiner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Slay said that in addition to getting ready to play this week he also made a point of trying to coach up the youngsters in the secondary who could be pressed into service.

"Just coaching them up and just trying to help them see it from how I see it out there on the field," Slay said. "Try to give them pointers, help them out a little bit. Anything I could possibly do. That was really what it is. Defense playing very good, man. We've just got to continue to keep building off that."

As it turns out, Slay was out there Sunday night, making a big play in the second half when he intercepted a Tua Tagovailoa pass deep in Eagles territory. But Slay was hardly alone in showing up big against the Dolphins. Whether it was Desai's scheme, Slay's tutelage or just good old fashioned talent, the Eagles played their best game of the season defensively when the team needed it the most.

Simply put, the Eagles played as well defensively as a team can reasonably be expected to against the Dolphins. Miami was averaging a league-leading 181.8 rushing yards per game over the season's first six weeks. Against the Eagles, the Dolphins had 45 yards on the ground. In the first half, the Dolphins had negative-seven rushing yards. Per Sunday night's broadcast, it was the fewest yards on the ground the 'Fins have gained in a half since 2009.

That was impressive, but not especially surprising considering Philly came into Week 7 with the best run defense in the NFL. But they also entered the week a so-so 18th in the league against the pass—a worrisome number when facing an offense that had averaged almost 317 passing yards a game.

But the Eagles stepped up against the Dolphins' passing attack almost as well as they did against the run. Tagovailoa's 216 passing yards were a season-low. After being sacked an NFL-low six times so far this season, Josh Sweat, Haason Reddick and the best defensive line in the game dropped Tagovailoa four times, including twice on the series that ended the game. Tyreek Hill caught 11 passes and scored Miami's only offensive touchdown, but he was held under 100 receiving yards.

That's right, the same offense that dropped 70 points on the Denver Broncos scored one touchdown against the Eagles—the other came on a Jerome Baker pick-six.

Now, the Eagles aren't flawless. They have a negative turnover differential, and Jalen Hurts has already thrown two more interceptions in seven games in 2023 than he did all of last season. Philly scored 31 points against the Dolphins, but it still feels like the team has yet to put together a truly complete effort offensively.

Still, while offensive fireworks are fun and all, the Eagles were propelled to the Super Bowl last year by two things—dominance in the trenches on offense and a defense that surrendered the second-fewest yards and eighth-fewest points per game in the league.

The offensive line has been as stout as ever. But the defense had been more hit-or-miss this season, especially against the pass. However, that 2022 defense showed up Sunday night in the team's biggest test of the season to date. They did something only one other team has this year—made the Miami defense look mortal. And they did an even better job of it than the Buffalo Bills.

The Philadelphia Eagles have an MVP-caliber quarterback in Hurts. An assemblage of skill-position talent as good as any in the NFL. The league's best offensive line. Add to that the smothering defense we saw Sunday, and you have the NFC's best team—and quite the possibly the best team in the NFL overall.

Sorry, San Francisco. If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best.

And the Eagles team we saw Sunday night is going to be awfully hard to beat.