Next up for Dolphins, the Eagles, as Miami tries to confirm all this good news

October 16, 2023 Admin

MIAMI GARDENS — Once again, the Miami Dolphins offered a tribute to the improbable Sunday by scoring 35 straight points.

Once again, Tyreek Hill got deep on a defense whose primary intent was keeping him from getting deep and, once again, Tua Tagovailoa threw the touchdown.

And so, for once in a long while, they’ve earned the national stage next Sunday in Philadelphia against the Eagles (5-1).

“It’s about time the Dolphins play some meaningful games,” linebacker Jerome Baker said after the 42-21 win over the Carolina Panthers (0-6).

Baker sat at the locker he has sat for six years, making him the second most-tenured Dolphins player. That gives him the authority to deliver such ideas, considering it means only the longer-tenured Xavien Howard has played more meaningless games than him.

Sunday’s win wasn’t meaningless. When you’re 5-1, when you lead the AFC East and when the goal is gaining the home field for the playoffs, every game matters.

Some just matter more.

Next Sunday is one of them. Philadelphia, which just suffered its first loss of the season to the New York Jets on Sunday, needs no national introduction in the way the Dolphins do. It played in last season’s Super Bowl. It looks intent on returning this February.

There’s the national angle of the former Alabama teammates and quarterbacks, the Dolphins’ Tagovailoa and Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts. There’s the strategic angle of Hill against a Philadelphia secondary with two Pro Bowl talents.

“Looking forward to it,” said Hill, who had six catches for 163 yards on Sunday. I love to compete, baby, so I only want to go against the best.”

That brings up the over-riding angle to next Sunday: The Dolphins get to measure themselves against a top team again. Buffalo is the only winning team the Dolphins have played thus far and, well, the 48-20 margin of loss is the outlier to the season, too. You can connect those dots, if you wish.

With winless Carolina as the latest example, the Dolphins’ five wins are against teams with a combined 5-22 record. No one thought New England, Denver, the New York Giants (who play Sunday night) and Carolina would be such creampuffs. But they are.

That’s not to dismiss beating lesser teams. Ask Philadelphia about that today. Ask San Francisco, the other unbeaten team entering Sunday. It lost to Cleveland. That’s a cue for the ’72 Dolphins to pop the cork.

Back to the ’23 Dolphins: There’s no need to guarding your emotions against the grave consequences of being, “too happy” about their season. Is everyone having, “too much fun,” as some killjoys suggest?

OK, when Hill took the cell phone of an end-zone photographer Sunday after scoring a touchdown and gave a point-of-view video of his back-flip, that was too much fun. The 15-yard taunting penalty said as much.

But the garden-variety ooh-ing and aah-ing over Sunday’s offense isn’t anything to have to defend. It’s entertaining. It’s borderline historic — well, for six games anyhow. It’s just time to confirm what has played out against losing teams can play against winning teams, too.

There’s Philadelphia next week, the patsy of New England (that idea never gets old), and then Kansas City in Germany. That’s two games against last year’s Super Bowl teams in the next three weeks.

This big platform, you see, can get bigger with a win or two.

Yeah, that’s the ultimate objective, isn’t it?” Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said. “You do things the right way, and you give reason for people to pay attention to you. You score a couple nationally televised games and hope you earn more.

“I think the bigger thing is that we’re a football team that’s learning to win different ways, finding some balance, and I think a lot of guys are getting better within the respective systems.”

The offense has run over everyone but Buffalo. The defense has had its way with the Giants and Carolina the past two weeks. What does it all mean? Philadelphia is a test in that fashion.

“I think this is a game that a lot of people are going to want to see, given the talent that’s on that side of the ball, the talent that’s on this side of the ball,” Tagovailoa said. “It’s one of those where, okay, we’ve got a lot of good matchups across the board.

“How are these guys going to play us? How are we going to come out against these guys?”

In the moments after beating Carolina, the conversation turned to Philadelphia. That’s what happens when you haven’t played on this kind of big stage in years. Decades, even? As Baker said, it’s about time this franchise played some meaningful games.