Defeat was in the air for Eagles

SOMEONE ASKED Chip Kelly if the Miami Dolphins' touchdown pass that bounced off Connor Barwin, ricocheted high in the air, and came down in the end zone in the hands of Miami's Jarvis Landry for the winning fourth-quarter points Sunday was "bad luck."

"Well, it's not good luck," Kelly said.

Safety Malcolm Jenkins said he didn't know the pass was blocked, which made Landry fair game. Instead of knocking Landry down, Jenkins hugged him ineffectually as he caught the ball.

A reporter told Barwin that the guys in the secondary didn't know the ball was tipped.

"Didn't know?!" Barwin said. "It looked to me like it was," and then Barwin broke off his thought, paused, and finished with "easier said than done."

Earlier, Barwin told a group of reporters: "That's kind of how the game went. It was in the air for four seconds. It has to be a pick."

"We blitzed. If Connor Barwin doesn't tip it, we probably pick it off, because we had two guys sitting right in their route," Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis said. "It went up in the air and I don't think the guys realized it. They didn't see it, because they were in coverage, and by the time they realized it, they were just fighting for the ball.

"It just didn't go our way. They made a play. It was a crazy play."

You could say it was luck, or you could say that good teams make their own luck, and that you either play heads up or with your head up something, and that the Eagles were too often in the second situation Sunday.

"I kind of turned and looked to where he was trying to throw. He was trying to throw to the guy that (Byron) Maxwell was covering in the back of the end zone," Jenkins said. "I didn't realize that Maxwell was kind of running at me, I turned around, and Landry had already kind of located the ball. At that point, I was just trying to get the ball out, but he came down with it."

"It seemed like it was up there about 10 seconds," said the passer, Ryan Tannehill. "That's something, as a quarterback - when the ball goes up in the air like that, good things tend not to happen.

"My heart seemed like it was slowing down, and the ball is slow motion coming down, but I saw Jarvis see the ball, and the defender did not see the ball. At that point, I was hoping that he could go make a play on it, and of course, he was able to."

Dolphins guard Branden Albert said: "It felt like it was in the air forever, almost an eternity."

The Eagles failed to register a takeaway for the first time in 15 games. Obviously, a takeaway there probably wins the game.

"That's the stat that affects the game more than anything," Jenkins said. "You can be mediocre on everything else, but if you take the ball away, that changes the game. You can be a really good defense that doesn't take the ball away if you're good on third down, good in the red zone, and good in two-minute, but the easiest way to affect the game is to take the ball away."

For the second time this season, an opponent overloaded the middle of the line and blocked a Donnie Jones punt. It was a little easier to understand in Week 2, when Dallas did it.

This time, seven weeks of practice later, protector Chris Maragos couldn't handle 240-pound linebacker Zach Vigil, who came at him with speed.

The Dolphins took over on the Eagles' 12 and scored two plays later, on a swing pass to Lamar Miller. That sequence was the game's key momentum swing.

"They ran an overload scheme and we just didn't block it up right," Maragos said. "Right up the middle."

Chip Kelly faulted long snapper Jon Dorenbos on the blocked punt and on Caleb Sturgis' missed 32-yard field goal, both huge moments in a one-point loss.

"I pushed the ball a little bit right. I have to do better," Sturgis said. "The wind was blowing left to right, and I have to start it farther down the middle. I just started it too far right and it missed. It's something that I have to get better at."

The return of DeMeco Ryans helped the run defense, the Dolphins gaining 99 yards on 26 carries. It could have been better, but it was an improvement over the previous two games . . . The Dolphins were without their top corner, Brent Grimes, from Northeast High and Shippensburg, after he arrived in his hometown with food poisoning, the Dolphins said. "I know what I ate, and it wasn't a Philly cheesesteak that caused this," Grimes said. So, everyone rest easier . . . The Eagles scored 16 points in the first quarter Sunday, after scoring a total of 10 points in the first quarters of their previous eight games, combined. Of course, they then added only a field goal the rest of the day . . . The Dolphins surrendered a safety for the third game in a row. They lost the other two games . . . Inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks, who again looked out of sync early, got sharper as the game went on and now has a sack in each of the three games he has played since returning from a hamstring injury.

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