Eagles vs. Dolphins: Is Sunday A Trap Game?

Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

The Philadelphia Eagles saved their season last week in Arlington, Texas when the team won an overtime thriller against the Dallas Cowboys. It was one of those types of wins that stay in your memory and add to what was already a heated rivalry between Dallas and Philadelphia. The players were hype, the coaches were hype, and, of course, you know the fans were extremely hype, but now all that is a distant memory. The Eagles will host the Miami Dolphins this week and the entire team must move on from such an emotional win. Miami and Philadelphia have only played each other 13 times, and not one game really sticks out as all that important. The Dolphins and Eagles have no history, no heated rivalry, and have no real connection.

The Miami Dolphins are 3-5 this season and have already made a coaching change, firing Joe Philbin and replacing him with Dan Campbell. The offense has been inconsistent, especially quarterback Ryan Tannehill, and the defense has been atrocious as the big fish in free agency Ndamukong Suh has failed to live up to expectations. The Dolphins have historically been like this throughout the years, a team that doesn’t suck enough to pick in the top 5 of the draft, but not good enough to be considered a playoff team. The Miami Dolphins are just sort of there, and this year is no different.

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This is the reason why I believe this could be a trap game for the Eagles. There’s no history between the teams, the Dolphins are a below average team, the Eagles are coming off an emotional win, and everyone is picking the Eagles to win this coming Sunday. This is a recipe for a classic trap game. The Eagles players have been saying all the right things, “the Dolphins are a good team that brings certain problems,” “we aren’t looking ahead, we’re taking it one game at a time,” but all this is easy to say, it’s much harder coming out on Sunday and proving it.

The Eagles must come out with the same fire and urgency against the Dolphins like they did against the Cowboys. A flat start will give a reeling Miami team confidence that they could win. Philadelphia has to take advantage of a Dolphins defense that gives up 4.5 yards per carry, second worst average in the entire league. The Eagles have been number 2 in the NFL in running the ball the past 4 weeks averaging over 170 yards rushing, this should be the matchup the Eagles should target. Running backs DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews, and Darren proles all need to get the ball early and often. Quarterback Sam Bradford finally looks comfortable and needs to pick apart a defense missing it’s best player in defensive end Cameron Wake due to a torn Achilles.

The Eagles have favorable matchups all over the field, and on paper, the team should come away with a victory come Sunday. The bad news is that games aren’t played on paper, and just because the Eagles have a better team doesn’t mean that winning is guaranteed. All the fans and national media are chalking this up as a win already, people are talking about future games and “what ifs.” The Football Gods don’t like that kind of talk, and you know what the saying is, “Any Given Sunday” a team that was supposed to lose wins.

There’s no history between the teams, no reason to be fired up, no underdog title to come out strong, there’s a whole lot of nothing between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Miami Dolphins. This is a game that just blends in with the schedule, it’s not a big televised game or really that intriguing. It’s an easy game to overlook. The Eagles have won three out of four games and will be favored to win Sunday, can the team step up and beat a team they should beat? Or will the Eagles come out flat and expect the Dolphins to just lay down? I’m not sure, but we will all find out Sunday.

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