Taking on Tua

The Philadelphia Eagles face a monumental task on Sunday night, taking on the fifth-highest scoring team in NFL history through six games in the Miami Dolphins.

While the team remains slightly depleted in the secondary, Sean Desai’s defensive unit may be in good position to hold their own thanks to some key matchup advantages in the defensive front.

On the latest episode of “Inside The Birds,” Adam Caplan and Geoff Mosher previewed the matchup against the Dolphins and gave their final score predictions.

Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa has mastered the quick game in the team’s historic start in 2023

Kendall Lamm

Geoff Mosher: “When you watch him on tape, you think he is not doing too badly. But then you watch the tape and realize that all the Dolphins do is three step drop you to death, so it’s not like he has to hold his blocks very long. But nonetheless, he has done okay. If you put Josh Sweat or Haason Reddick across from him, that is a different story.”

Vic Fangio

Mosher: “The Dolphins do what the Eagles do: Vic Fangio is their defensive coordinator. They are going to give you the middle and the edges, the flats and they are going to say take it, I guarantee you will get impatient. The Eagles were very good, especially last year, about finding their spots and being patient, but this year Jalen (Hurts) has not been as patient. This game, I suspect they get back to doing what they do best.”

Adam Caplan: “I had a coach who coached against Fangio tell me there are definitely voids for tight ends to get the football. Maybe it will be (Dallas) Goedert to get involved. Vic is going to disguise post snap to make Hurts hold on to the football.”

Dolphins Defensive Front

Mosher: “The Dolphins have some good edge rushers with Bradley Chubb, (Emmanuel) Ogbah, and Jalean Phillips, but in the two games I watched, they were not nearly as good as the Jets and not so fast off the edges that the Eagles have never seen before.”

Caplan: “Watch Andrew Van Ginkel, #43. He plays inside linebacker and outside linebacker. He is really good, super underrated. Their front is really good.”

Tua Tagovailoa

Mosher: “Their entire offense is a three step drop offense, unless they are running a bootleg or some kind of play action that has him rolling out of the pocket, the whole idea is to get the ball out of his hands to his first read. If he has to go to his second read, he does not want to be in that pocket, so he starts to get a little erratic.”

Caplan: “When he doesn’t see his first read, he looks like he is frozen. He has been great so far because he is getting rid of it so quickly. If they take away that one read, by the way the Eagles are getting pressure, he is in trouble.”

Run Game

Mosher: “Their run game is what you expect it to be. It’s Shanahan like, they are going to orbit motion (Jaylen) Waddle or (Tyreek) Hill and then at the same time they are going to move a tight end to the left and then hand the ball off up the middle. The biggest thing the Eagles have to do is tackle. The Dolphins have the ability with three or four different players to take a six-yard gain and make it a 56-yard gain if you miss a tackle and Mike McDaniel is really good at getting his ball carriers and playmakers in a spot where they only have one guy to beat.”

Final Score Prediction

Caplan: “I have it Eagles 27, Dolphins 33. I am just so worried about their secondary and I don’t know how the Eagles can defend these guys.”

Mosher: “I am picking the Eagles to win. I think the Eagles defensive front will be overwhelming against Tua and force him to make pretty tough throws. You can only get to that first read against a team like the Eagles so many times. I am picking the Eagles 27, Dolphins 23.”

– Benjamin Paul is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.