MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – It's another week on the road for the Eagles, who are in Miami to battle the Dolphins in a pair of joint practices before the final preseason game on Saturday night. Practice lasted for about an hour and 45 minutes and featured several team periods. For a recap and analysis, read 14 takeaways from Fran Duffy and Chris McPherson:

1. The Eagles arrived early to the Dolphins' beautiful practice facility, and players spent their time acclimating to the South Florida heat by catching up with old friends on the opposite side. Players, coaches, scouts, and other team officials meet and greet their counterparts on the Miami sideline as both teams prepare to warm up. The quarterbacks are the first to get out on the field, as Coach Brian Johnson joins his players in competing to see who can throw the most accurate comeback route along the sideline. Coach Nick Sirianni, sporting a fresh, white, DeVonta Smith T-shirt, is prepping himself with some spray-on suntan lotion. – Fran Duffy

2. Wide receiver individual drills start, and coach Aaron Moorehead has a couple of drills on tap this morning. First, the receivers work on their releases against press coverage. Moorehead stresses to his players that they must continue to attack vertically while defeating the jam. They can't waste time off the line, because that will disrupt the timing with the quarterback. A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and the rest of the pass catchers run a couple of routes, facing several "jams" from their coach before transitioning to the next drill, which again has them facing contact. This time, Moorehead has a pad on his arm and is forcing his players to fight through contact at the top of the route before they stick their foot in the ground and break toward the sideline. These drills are all going to be important this week, as the Dolphins have a very aggressive, competitive secondary that played more man coverage than anyone in football a year ago. The Eagles' receivers will be tested all week. – Fran

3. Focusing on the defense today, the edge rushers and linemen start individual drills by practicing loose ball drills. Eagles fans all know how securing a loose ball like defensive end Derek Barnett did in Super Bowl LII can help transform a team into a champion. The coaches then put the players through agility drills like running around cones lined up in the shape of a figure 8 in order to practice bending off the corner to get around the offensive tackle. Meanwhile, over at the linebacker group, the players work on matching up against would-be running backs in the hole and communicating on covering running backs out of the backfield. This will be integral going against the Dolphins who utilize a lot of pre-snap motion and eye candy to get the defenders off their keys. Former Eagles great Connor Barwin serves as the running back in this drill and he must have shed a few pounds in the intense heat. – Chris McPherson

4. One-on-one sessions begin and my attention is being paid to the receivers going up against the Miami secondary. A.J. Brown gets the first rep and makes an outstanding catch down the left sideline against Pro Bowl corner Xavien Howard. Brown ran a go route downfield, and Hurts delivered the ball over his outside shoulder. Brown stuck out one paw and tapped the ball to himself, securing it for the big play against the talented Howard.

On the near sideline, DeVonta Smith created excellent separation against starting corner Nik Needham, going to the ground to pull in the back shoulder throw with both feet in-bounds. Jalen Reagor later ran a great vertical route, stacking the Miami corner and getting on top of him, but the ball was jusssst out of reach and fell incomplete - but it was still a good release and route from the former first-round pick. Deon Cain ran a smooth comeback route for a completion. Brown won on a slant route against Howard. John Hightower had a great release and won clean off the line for a go ball touchdown. Zach Pascal showed off his physicality in beating a Miami corner's jam for a slant reception. – Fran

5. Taking in the Eagles' defensive backs going against the Dolphins' wide receivers in one-on-one drills, Darius Slay did a good job of reading and reacting to Tyreek Hill's outside release down the right sideline. Slay was stride-for-stride until he stumbled as the ball was in the air, allowing Hill to break free for the touchdown. Avonte Maddox and Tay Gowan scored wins for the Eagles' defense. Maddox broke up an out route intended for receiver Lynn Bowden Jr. while Gowan forced an incompletion on a deep ball to Cedrick Wilson Jr. – C-Mac

6. During the special teams period, as the two squads worked on the kicking game, wide receiver DeVonta Smith was working on the sideline with coach Kevin Patullo. The two are often working together in practice on the side, with Smith catching passes from awkward angles and body positions. Today, the two work on passes that are aimed low at Smith's feet. By my count, not one hit the ground. – Fran

7. While 7-on-7 action begins in the middle of the field, I walk over to the end zone to watch the Eagles' offensive line take on the Miami defensive line, a group that has a handful of former first-round picks. I thought this was a really evenly-matched session, with wins on both sides. Lane Johnson is up first and anchors down well against an Emmanuel Ogbah bull rush. Isaac Seumalo and Christian Wilkins stalemate on the next rep, and soon after Landon Dickerson faces up against Zach Sieler. The defensive end tried to get inside Dickerson's pads, but Dickerson dropped his anchor and threw his hands, delivering a thunderous punch that knocked Sieler straight to the ground, with Dickerson on top of him.

Jaelan Phillips, Miami's young pass rusher, matched up next with Jordan Mailata, and I thought this was a clean rep on both sides, with Mailata running the corner with Phillips, who tried to win outside with a clean rip move. I'll speed through the rest of the impressive reps on the Eagles' side: Andre Dillard stopped an Owen Carney bull rush, tossing him to the ground for good measure at the end; Jack Driscoll stifled another Miami bullrusher on the very next rep; Le'Raven Clark had a great rep, stopping an inside move with his post hand and completely shutting the door; Dickerson and Mailata both got wins in the period's waning moments as well. – Fran

8. Watching 7-on-7 drills, the Eagles benefited from the pre-snap motion utilized by the Dolphins as the defense had to communicate and react on the fly. Again, the Eagles did not gameplan for these practices, so the coaches want to see how the players do under pressure that they didn't anticipate. – C-Mac

9. With the first 11-on-11 action getting underway, Miami's style of play is apparent early on. They have a bunch of players up on the line of scrimmage. Their corners are in aggressive press coverage. This is not an easy scheme to go up against, especially with the team not gameplanning. Hurts completes a quick screen to Pascal, who is able to slip by a Brown block down the sideline. Hurts was able to complete a couple of checkdowns as well, but Miami's defense is flying around in the early going. The backups enter the fray, with Gardner Minshew hitting Jack Stoll on a shallow crossing route, but the Eagles' run game struggles to get going through much of this first period. – Fran

10. Before practice, Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon shared that he was pleased with the progress made by the defense in stopping the run and Wednesday's practice proved him correct. Fletcher Cox got in the backfield early in the team period to stuff running back Raheem Mostert. The second-team defense stuffed running back Myles Gaskin and then collapsed the pocket to sack quarterback Teddy Bridgewater. Heating up, defensive tackle Jordan Davis keeps the momentum going with a run stuff followed shortly after by a tackle for loss by defensive tackle Milton Williams on a toss play. Cornerback Avonte Maddox continued his strong day with tight coverage on a deep ball intended for receiver Erik Ezukanma. Linebacker Kyzir White stuffed running back Sony Michel. Linebacker Haason Reddick notched a sack to round out the highlights from the early team sessions. – C-Mac

11. The next set of team periods begin and one of the Dolphins' defensive leaders, tackle Christian Wilkins, gets pretty animated toward the Philadelphia huddle. Wilkins, a former captain for Clemson's National Title Team, seemingly wanted the intensity to ramp up on both sides. The Eagles obliged with this request. On the first play, Landon Dickerson came pulling from left to right and steamrolled a Miami defensive lineman, springing a run to the right side. The defender took exception to the block, and tempers flared a bit with players pushing and shoving, but common sense prevailed, and practice continued. This may have been the spark the Eagles' offense needed in this period, because on the ensuing play, Hurts hit Smith on a deep post route that drew several flags in the secondary (Smith caught the ball regardless over the corner, Needham). Next, Hurts hit tight end Dallas Goedert in the left flank on a screen, with Goedert splitting two blocks by Smith and Zach Pascal and jetting down the left sideline on what was a well-executed play. Next, Hurts hit running back Kenneth Gainwell underneath off play-action as the first-team offense headed to the sideline. – Fran

12. For the third team period, the ball came out of Jalen Hurts' hands fast, early, and often. First, Hurts hit Brown on a speed out route along the right sideline before finding Smith on a similar play on the near side. Hurts then found Stoll over the middle on a play that would have moved the chains. The second-team unit came out and had a couple of nice gains, with running back Jason Huntley sprinting to the outside on a perimeter run and getting the corner, circling the defense, and creating the big play in space. On the next rep, Minshew hit Pascal over the middle on a deep crossing route. Pascal had to fully outstretch to pull the pass in, but did so on the run for a first down. Hurts came back in and later hit Brown on a shallower crosser, hitting the Pro Bowl receiver in-stride to help create a huge gain with plenty of yards after the catch. Pascal ended the period with a deep route where he was wide open for a touchdown on the left side. – Fran

13. The final team period for the Eagles' defense was an end-of-half situation where the game was tied with under a minute left. The Dolphins had one time out. Reddick registered another sack to back up the Dolphins, but tight end Mike Gesicki made a one-handed grab on a shallow crosser to move the chains. The Eagles made a couple of open-field "tackles" to keep the clock moving, eventually forcing Miami to settle for a 50-yard field goal as time expired. – C-Mac

14. The first-team offense took the field for the final time in a two-minute drill situation to end practice. Lane Johnson was getting some of his equipment tended to on the sideline, so Jack Driscoll was in at right tackle, and Dickerson left the drill after the second play as well, with Sua Opeta stepping in for him. Gainwell got things started with a catch underneath as Hurts beat the blitz with a quick throw. Mailata had a great rep in pass pro on the next play, a throw that found Brown for a first down but later came back due to a penalty. After two completions to Gainwell and Goedert to move the chains, the Eagles got to around midfield, but a first-down sack got them behind the chains. Hurts hit Smith on second down for a short gain, and found Boston Scott for a catch over the middle on third down that fell just short of the sticks to bring up fourth down to end the drill, and the practice, for both sides. – Fran

Injury Report

Did Not Practice

G Jack Anderson – Ribs

LB Shaun Bradley – Illness

LB Christian Elliss – Hamstring

DT Javon Hargrave – Toe

CB Josh Jobe – Elbow

C Jason Kelce – Elbow

RB Miles Sanders – Hamstring

CB Josiah Scott – Hamstring

WR Greg Ward – Toe

Limited

CB James Bradberry – Groin