Eagles halt Tua Tagovailoa and the Dolphins’ high-powered offense

All week long, the Eagles defensive line heard the chatter.

The Dolphins arrived Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field boasting the NFL’s most prolific offense with a whopping average of 498.7 yards and 37.2 points per game, while quarterback Tua Tagovailoa led the league in fastest time-to-throw at 2.28 seconds. Through six games, the Dolphins also were only the second team in NFL history with at least 15 passing and 15 rushing touchdowns.

Would the banged-up Eagles defense be able to limit the high-octane machine from South Florida?

“We take everything personal,” team captain Fletcher Cox said. “We knew they had a really explosive offense, but our biggest thing was slowing them down.”

The Eagles halted the Dolphins’ otherworldly offensive production with a decisive 31-17 victory in prime time. Miami managed just 244 total yards, 12 first downs, and one offensive touchdown. Tagovailoa threw for a season-low 216 passing yards and he was sacked a season-high four times by Josh Sweat (twice), Nolan Smith, and Cox and Josh Sweat (1/2 split).

“We knew it would come down to us,” said Sweat, who is now tied with Haason Reddick for most sacks with 5 1/2. “I don’t think they’ve played anybody like us...the way we attack.”

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: The Birds’ lines dominate the Dolphins on both sides of the ball

The pass rush was relentless against a Dolphins offensive line that was missing two starters at kickoff. Under coordinator Sean Desai, who continues to impress as the season progresses, the unit won often, even when rushing just four defenders. The pressure on Tagovailoa came at all angles, from the interior to the edges.

“It’s tough when you come on the road against a really good team and you’re not able to execute the way you expected to execute,” Tagovailoa said. “But you have to give props to [the Eagles] and their coaching staff. They did a real good job in preparing for us.”

On rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter’s first snap, he executed a bull rush that left Isaiah Wynn injured, registered a pressure, and forced a wild third-down incompletion from Tagovailoa. Carter, who made his return from his one-game absence with an ankle injury, continues to look the part of a top draft pick and also as a key piece to the team’s future.

“We came into this game knowing they had aggressive O-lineman, so my plan was to come in, match their aggressiveness,” Carter said. “I tried to go throughout the game with that mindset, [using] pure strength.

“A lot of teams, they see I’m a rookie, and they might think I’m not going to make an impact like that. So that gives me a chance to get one-on-one on my early reps to get pressures and sacks...If [Tagovailoa] gets the ball out quick, we’ve got to rush quicker. We knew he wanted to get it out fast. We wanted to make an impact.”

» READ MORE: Sean Desai was the MVC — most valuable coach — as the Eagles defense shut down the Dolphins

Cox credited the secondary, which deployed a different starting unit for the seventh consecutive game due to a multitude of injuries, for staying sticky enough in coverage, which allowed the pass rush to get home in key spots. Additionally, the Eagles were stout once again versus the run. Dolphins tailback Raheem Mostert failed to break a big run in the first half, which in turn, made the Dolphins a bit one-dimensional. Mostert finished with just nine carries for 45 yards.

“That’s what it’s about,” Cox said. “We just beat a really good football team. They can score whenever they want. They still made a lot of big plays. We just made more big plays in the end. We wanted to beat them as a unit.”

Overall, the Eagles limited the Dolphins to season lows in points, total yards, passing yards (199), rushing yards (45), and time of possession (23:17). Entering Sunday, the Eagles ranked third in the NFL with 104 quarterback pressures. They lived up to that makeup against Tagovailoa, who made uncharacteristic mistakes, including his pass attempt on a wheel route to Mostert that was picked off by cornerback Darius Slay.

The turnover served as an exclamation point for a defense that has dealt with new faces across its secondary on a weekly basis. The lone constant for the Desai-led unit has been the unit’s ability to win up front. Even during the team’s lone defeat last week to the Jets, the defense sacked Zach Wilson five times, in addition to 10 quarterback hits.

On Sunday, against one of the league’s most elite offenses, the Eagles balled out in the trenches, and they put the spotlight back on themselves.

“I’s just a race to get there every time, so I think [shoot] I have to get there,” Sweat said. “Desai is putting us in the best situations possible. He’s letting us be free.

“He’s not scared. It doesn’t matter the [opposing] team. He’s not going to let them get to him.”