Eagles Show NFL They’re Still NFC’s Top Contender with Dominant Win over Dolphins | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

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.