Takeaways Hard Thing to Come by For Philadelphia Eagles, Miami Dolphins

Neither team has forced a turnover since Week 3, and the Philadelphia Eagles are making getting them again a priority leading into Sunday night's matchup of the two 5-1 teams.

PHILADELPHIA – It’s not often that playoff teams don’t finish the regular season with more takeaways than giveaways, but, as the NFL season closes in on the halfway mark, both the Philadelphia Eagles and Miami Dolphins have some work to do to get into plus numbers in that category.

Neither team has forced a turnover since Week 3, which makes for one of several things to watch for when the two 5-1 teams meet on Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field.

The last time the Eagles got one was when safety Reed Blankenship stepped in front of a Baker Mayfield pass against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sept. 25. That came on the heels of the Eagles recovering four fumbles a week earlier against the Minnesota Vikings.

Since then, zip. The lack of turnovers, coupled with the four turnovers the offense had in last week’s loss at the New York Jets, has Philly sitting at minus one in the giveaway/takeaway department.

The Eagles have two interceptions and recovered six fumbles, which was the second-most in the league entering Week 7, behind the seven fumble recoveries by the Jacksonville Jaguars.

That mostly solid work has been undone by the Eagles’ nine giveaways, seven of which have been Jalen Hurts interceptions.

Last year after six games, the Eagles were plus six, as Hurts threw just six picks all year.

“I don’t think they’re hard to come by,” said cornerback Darius Slay, who missed last week’s game with a knee injury but is expected to play Sunday night. “We just have to capitalize on the opportunities. We had a lot of times we could’ve made a play.

“We had some fumbles we could’ve jumped on or guys tried to scoop it, but it rolled out, interceptions that could’ve been made. They’re there.”

Sunday night would be a good time to start if the Eagles want to slow down an explosive Dolphins offense and help give the Philly offense a potentially shorter field on which to work.

Reed Blankenship after his interception of Baker Mayfield in Week 3, the last turnover the Eagles defense forced / USA Today

Miami had three forced turnovers in its Week 3, 70-20 romp over the Denver Broncos - two fumble recoveries and an interception. The Dolphins are minus four in the giveaway/takeaway department.

Eagles defensive coordinator Sean Desai said that, like sacks, turnovers can come in bunches.

“We are going to go continue to attack the ball,” he said. “We have had some missed opportunities with the ball on the ground a few times, and we have to go get it.

“So, we are going to keep swarming it and we are going to keep attacking it and we are going to keep wrapping at the level of the ball and preaching all the fundamentals we do because we have seen they do come and the ball has been out. And sometimes they are opportunistic, and we have not had them the last couple weeks, but we'll get back to it.”

Linebacker Zach Cunningham said that there has been even more of an emphasis on trying to take the ball away this week.

“We’ve been doing drills, swiping at the ball, tip drills, catching the ball,” he said. “We did some tip drills (Thursday)…we have to make turnovers a priority.”

In the case of cornerback James Bradberry, trying to get a takeaway comes down to individual effort.

“I would say, me personally, I need to play a little more aggressively in certain situations in the game,” he said. “I feel (Jets QB) Zach Wilson did a good protecting the ball then we played the Commanders, Sam Howell, did a good job against us protecting the ball.

“We didn’t have much chance for tips, but we dropped a couple, too. We missed out on some opportunities they gave us. I need to play more aggressive on my end, though.”