There isn’t a more fascinating matchup on the NFL’s Week 7 schedule than the Sunday night stand-alone national game between the Dolphins (5-1) and Eagles (5-1) at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles will enter the game still smarting from the 20-14 loss they took from the Jets last Sunday at MetLife Stadium. The Jets’ defense forced four Philadelphia turnovers in that game.
Three of those giveaways came on Jalen Hurts interceptions, the last of which set up the Jets’ winning touchdown in the final moments of the game.
“Sometimes after bad losses there’s great times for growth and so that’s what our mission will be to grow from this, grow from the mistakes that we made,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said this week.
“We’ve been here before,’’ Hurts said. “It’s all about how you respond to it. I got a feeling that we’ll come in with some great intensity. Some of these things, they build character. I say that all the time it truly builds character so this team just has to respond the right way.
Hurts was uncharacteristically brutal in the loss to the Jets, going 28-for-45 for 280 yards, one passing TD, one rushing TD and those three damaging INTs. The Jets’ defense, with some brilliant disguised fronts and coverages, had Hurts often throwing off his back foot and looking unsure at what he was looking at.
The Dolphins, whose defense isn’t the caliber of the Jets, surely have been scouring that film during the week to pick up anything that disrupted Hurts. One thing that may help Miami is the fact that Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson, one of the anchors on their offensive line, was lost to an ankle injury against the Jets.
On the other side of the ball, the Eagles’ defense will be facing a much more dangerous and prolific offense than that of the Jets, which they held to only 244 total offensive yards and 2-for-11 on third downs.
The degree of difficulty for the Philadelphia defense will be raised Sunday night. The Dolphins are a track team in helmets and pads with quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, and running back Raheem Mostert.
They’re averaging 499 yards per game, the second-most in NFL history through six games. Only Kurt Warner’s 2000 St. Louis Rams team, nicknamed “The Greatest Show on Turf,” averaged more.
