Brown’s record night, Hurts’ resolve carries the Eagles
PHILADELPHIA − It was throwback night for the Eagles, who wore their Kelly green uniforms, then played like the vintage defenses from the early 1990s in shutting down the high-scoring Miami Dolphins on Sunday night.
But the Eagles also got a modern-era version of A.J. Brown’s greatness, as the wide receiver tied an NFL record set by Detroit’s Calvin Johnson with five straight games with at least 125 yards receiving.
All of it was enough to bury the Dolphins 31-17 in a matchup of the NFL’s top two offensive teams.
The Eagles improved to 6-1. More impressively, they showed resolve not only after a tough loss to the Jets last week, but during the game when Jalen Hurts threw a pick-six late in the third quarter that tied the game at 17.
Hurts didn’t panic. He came right back and led a 75-yard touchdown drive that used up 7 minutes, 5 seconds. Then after a Darius Slay interception, Hurts led another long scoring drive.
And he apparently did it on an injured knee.
Hurts barely acknowledged the injury, saying that it was something that happened in a previous game, and that ,”I’ll be fine.”
He did admit to putting on a knee brace, presumably at halftime.
“He’s got a championship mentality, and he’s a big professional,” Eagles left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “That’s why we follow him. He took ownership on the sideline when that happened, and then he’s like ‘Gotta move on.’ Maybe he was taking to himself, but we all heard it. And we went out there, and he did his magic.”
Brown did, too. He finished with 137 yards receiving.
He caught a 32-yard pass on 4thand-3 in the second quarter down to the Dolphins’ 1 yard line. It was his first play after coming out of the medical tent after he got hit hard on his cheek.
“I got hit in the face somehow, someway,” Brown said. “I cut my cheek somehow. Got up a little slow. I had to make sure I was OK.”
Then about the catch: “My vision was probably still a little blurry,” he said with a laugh.
And the defense made sure the Dolphins couldn’t get untracked. After averaging 499 yards and 37 points per game, the Dolphins didn’t get half of those amounts Sunday. They finished with 244 yards to go along with a season-low 17 points.
Still, they had a chance after Hurts’ 14-yard TD pass to Brown gave the Eagles a 24-17 lead with 15 seconds left in the third quarter. The Dolphins drove down to the Eagles’ 24, facing a 3rdand-8, when Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa tried for running back Raheem Mostert on a looping pass toward the end zone.
Mostert had gotten behind Eagles linebacker Zach Cunningham, and appeared to be open. But Darius Slay, who was covering Jaylen Waddle in the area, left him to intercept the pass.
“Just being a ballplayer, really,” Slay said. “Waddle had ran a route that kind of led me to the running back, so I covered my dude, but I had vision at the quarterback. So I saw the ball not being thrown to my dude, so I just came over and made a play.”
And then the Eagles put the game away by making plays of their own.
The Eagles faced a 4th-and-1 from their 26 with about 9 minutes to go. Normally, teams would punt in that situation. Not the Eagles with their ‘tush push.’ In fact, Eagles center Jason Kelce said head coach Nick Sirianni called a timeout to tell the offense to stay on the field.
“I definitely wasn’t surprised,” Kelce said. “Backed up in our own zone, with the game on the line, seven points (in front), the defense is playing really well. Everybody saw both sides of this one. For sure, punting it, that’s the safe route.
“But obviously, (Sirianni) felt really, really confident with it ... Maybe he felt compelled that he was being stupid and needed to send us back out there. But he was like, ‘What am I doing? Get back out there. We’re doing this.’”
And then the Eagles did it again three plays later, facing a 4th-and-1 from their 37. Same play, same result.
That set up Hurts’ 42-yard pass to Brown down to the Dolphins’ 8. Soon after, Kenny Gainwell’s 3-yard TD run put the game away.
Sirianni said going for it on 4th-and-1 deep in their own territory wasn’t much of a thought. That shows how automatic the “tush push” has become. In all, the Eagles converted all four of their attempts.
“It’s first-and-9 every down,” Sirianni said. “Every first down, it’s first-and-9.” Then he gave an impassioned plea to the NFL to not ban the play, as has been hinted at by rival coaches.
“I’m making my plug right there,” he said. “Don’t ban this play. If everyone could do it, everybody would.”
Any thoughts of a Dolphins comeback were thwarted when Tua Tagovailoa threw incomplete on fourth down with 3:19 remaining.
All of it was part of the Eagles’ blueprint for beating the high-flying Dolphins. The strategy was simple, really: Control the ball on offense to limit the Dolphins’ chances.
And it mostly worked, except for two turnovers by Hurts.
The Eagles opened the game with a drive lasting 7 minutes, 6 seconds, and reaching the Miami 8 after two straight 22-yard passes from Hurts to Dallas Goedert.
But the formula does not include settling for field goals, and that’s what the Eagles did after the drive stalled. Hurts tried a QB draw on 3rd-and-goal from the 9. He only picked up three yards and Jake Elliott kicked a 24-yard field goal.
The Eagles have had trouble in the red zone all season. They came into the game getting TDs on only 45.4% of their drives inside the opponent’s 20 yard line, ranking 23rd in the NFL.
It didn’t get any better on the next drive as Hurts held the ball too long in the pocket on 3rd-and-8 and was stripsacked by linebacker Jaelan Phillips. Christian Wilkins recovered at the Eagles’ 23.
The Eagles held the Dolphins to a field goal, tying the game at 3-3.
Then the Eagles took over and the Dolphins couldn’t keep up.
“I’m happy in how we responded,” Hurts said. “I think we played a really good complimentary football. We had some negative plays, obviously, with the fumble by me − can’t have that.
“Just happy how we played together. Happy how we persevered, found ways to respond.”
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on X @Mfranknfl.