‘Dominated Up Front’
ITB Postgame Live: Dolphins Overwhelmed by Eagles D-Line
The Philadelphia Eagles bounced back in a big way on primetime, keeping in check a historic Miami Dolphins offense and once again proving themselves to have the best trench play in the entire NFL.
On the Week 7 edition of “Inside The Birds Postgame Live,” former Eagles tight end Clay Harbor joined Geoff Mosher to break down the team’s 31-17 victory over the Dolphins.
Run Defense
Geoff Mosher: “Against a Dolphins offense that scores a lot of points, the big key was dominating up front. People think about the passing game, it is the run game where it starts with the Dolphins. They didn’t have one tonight, not an effective one.”
Clay Harbor: “They only had 12 total carries on the entire game. In the first half to hold a team to -7, I don’t care if you are the worst rushing team, to hold them to negative seven yards is very impressive. Obviously the big boys up front, hats off to them, Josh Sweat, Jalen Carter had a heck of a game, Jordan Davis.”
Eagles Offense
Harbor: “They started with the short pass, you saw Dallas Goedert get involved early, DeVonta Smith catch the midrange passes early. That looked like it was Brian Johnson’s game plan.”
Mosher: “Here is a stat that contributed to the Eagles having the ball for almost 37 minutes of the game. If you look at third down, they were 4-11. However, we know the Eagles treat third down like second down. If you combine third down and fourth down, they were 8-15. If you combine that with what they were able to do in the red zone being 4-6, that is a great example of how to beat the Dolphins.”
Haason Reddick
Harbor: “The way that Reddick was able to stop the run game, you saw they couldn’t run the ball to him…there are specific rules that you have to follow if you are a defender. But there are guys who don’t have to follow the rules. You can sense Reddick is on the edge, he is not going to let you get outside of him as a blocker. Reddick is so athletic he is just going to shoot up the field, he has the quickness to beat you and then blow up the play.”
Darius Slay
Harbor: “The Dolphins players didn’t pay attention to their landmarks. That was able to bring Slay, who shouldn’t have even been in that play. He was not the main defender, he was just able to see the ball and look back at the quarterback. Slay is such a veteran, if this guy is all the way out and he is playing inside, he is going to see that ball and go pick it off. He made a heck of a play on it.”
Mosher: “He and (James) Bradberry have not played great football for the past few weeks. This team needs these guys to play really good football, not only because they are the starting corners, but also because they are so banged up at safety and nickel that they really need those guys.”
– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.
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