When you sign on as an Eagles fan, you should be no stranger to the concept of heartbreaking losses.

This one, however, was exceptionally depressing and weird.

The Birds finally got off to a great offensive start in the first quarter… and then, proceeded to waste a gritty defensive effort against the Dolphins and succumbed to the ultimate radioactive decay on offense.

Give Miami some credit. They hung around and hung in there. A Boy Named Suh played a great second half and damn near neutralized half of the Eagles offensive line, including pro-bowl center Jason Kelce, who was so rattled by the architectural engineering grad student he was even misfiring his shotgun snaps.

But in the end, the game was right there for the taking by the Eagles offense…they were down at the 8-yard line of the Dolphins with ten minutes to go and came away with zip.

QB MarkSanchez (who had replaced the injured Sam Bradford in the 3rd)  overthrew veteran Miles Austin and was intercepted by Miami safety Reshad Jones.

Bradford had injured his shoulder and sustained a concussion on the same play, forcing him out of the game in the 20-19 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

To be fair, Sanchez had a touchdown pass to tight end Zach Ertz negated by a penalty. After building a 16-3 lead in the first quarter, the Eagles found themselves trailing 20-19 with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Sanchez threw an interception in the end zone as Miami pulled off the upset.

Bradford went down with a concussion and a shoulder injury on a sack by linebacker Chris McCain. On the same drive, running back Ryan Mathews left the game and was evaluated for a concussion. Wide receiver Jordan Matthews had the wind knocked out of him on a big hit by Jamar Taylor.

So many missed opportunities to go up huge on the Dolphins early— the Eagles had their second punt of the season blocked. Miami linebacker Zach Vigil ran past Eagles safety Chris Maragos. Vigil blocked Donnie Jones‘ punt and knocked Jones down for good measure.

Two plays later, Tannehill threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Lamar Miller. The Eagles’ 16-3 lead was down to 16-13.  A big special-teams play — the Eagles’ best friend in 2014 — had given their opponent a boost.

A great output by tight end Brent Celek was wasted—Celek caught a short pass from Bradford on the Eagles’ first offensive play. Celek took it 60 yards to the Miami 4-yard line. In the first half, Celek caught three passes for 120 yards. That was Celek’s highest yardage total in a game since Kelly became head coach. Celek caught eight passes for 157 yards in a game in 2012, his last season in Andy Reid’s offense. Last season, Celek caught five passes for 116 yards in a game against Carolina.

Ryan Tannehill‘s deflected pass ended up in the hands of Jarvis Landry for the go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter, and the defense made it hold up to snap Miami’s two-game losing streak.

“It’s great for us to pat ourselves on the back right this second,” Suh said.  Suh had one of his best games since joining the Dolphins (4-5). He had a sack, three tackles for losses and three hurries.

“He stepped up,” interim coach Dan Campbell said. “He did so much for us.”

Mark Sanchez drove the Eagles (4-5) to the Dolphins 8 late in the fourth quarter, but Jones intercepted his pass in the end zone. Jones had a pick-6 in consecutive games last month. Miami’s defense held again in the final minute.

Sam Bradford led the Eagles on touchdown drives on their first two possessions with a safety sandwiched in between, giving Philadelphia more points (16) in the first quarter against the Dolphins than it had in the first quarter of their first eight games combined (10).

Bradford hit Brent Celek for a 60-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage and scrambled away from defenders to toss a 2-yard TD pass to Josh Huff for the team’s first TD on the opening drive this season.

After a major blunder by returner Damien Williams on the kickoff — he tried to bring it out from deep in the end zone, fumbled, picked it up at the 1 and went down — Walter Thurmond sacked Tannehill on a blitz and he fumbled out of the end zone for a safety.

Ryan Mathews ran in from the 1 on Philadelphia’s next possession to make it 16-3.

But the Eagles’ next drive ended when Sturgis missed from 32 and Miami scored 10 straight points to get within 16-13.

That’s when I started feeling we had lost our edge.

Miami drove to the Eagles 5 but settled for a 22-yard field goal. Jay Ajayi had runs of 20 and 24 yards on the drive.

The Dolphins forced Philadelphia’s first punt on the ensuing drive and Zach Vigil blocked it out of bounds at the Eagles 12. Tannehill then tossed a 13-yard TD pass to Lamar Miller to cut it to 16-13.

“That was a huge play for us,” Campbell said of the block. “You could feel the momentum swing back in our favor. I think it gave us a little breath of life.”

I hated Chip Kelly’s play-calling near the end when he refused to adjust his tempo to the fact that all he needed was a FG to win the game… and leave Miami very little time on the clock to answer. But truth be told, there were some execution issues by his players in terms of dropped passes and missed hot reads.

All you can say now is remember, this is just a game, not the streets of Paris tonight… put it into the rear-view mirror and try to get the next one against Tampa Bay…

FIRST QUARTER		MIA	PHI
	FG 10:27 Andrew Franks 42 Yd Field Goal 10 plays, 44 yards, 4:33	3	0
	TD 8:43 Josh Huff 2 Yd pass from Sam Bradford (Caleb Sturgis Kick) 4 plays, 64 yards, 1:44	3	7
	SF 8:38 Walter Thurmond III Safety 1 play, -1 yard, 0:05	3	9
	TD 4:43 Ryan Mathews 1 Yd Run (Caleb Sturgis Kick) 10 plays, 58 yards, 3:55	3	16
SECOND QUARTER		MIA	PHI
	FG 8:18 Andrew Franks 22 Yd Field Goal 11 plays, 74 yards, 4:33	6	16
	TD 5:52 Lamar Miller 13 Yd pass from Ryan Tannehill (Andrew Franks Kick) 2 plays, 12 yards, 0:45	13	16
FOURTH QUARTER		MIA	PHI
	TD 14:55 Jarvis Landry 4 Yd pass from Ryan Tannehill (Andrew Franks Kick) 7 plays, 87 yards, 3:14	20	16
	FG 10:20 Caleb Sturgis 37 Yd Field Goal 15 plays, 61 yards, 4:35	20	19

Final:

	1	2	3	4	T
MIA	3	10	0	7	20
PHI	16	0	0	3	19

Matchup MIAMI PHILA
1st Downs 15 29
Passing 1st downs 11 15
Rushing 1st downs 4 10
1st downs from penalties 0 4
3rd down efficiency 5-15 7-18
4th down efficiency 0-0 1-2
Total Plays 66 88
Total Yards 289 436
Total Drives 14 14
Yards per Play 4.4 5.0
Passing 190 353
Comp-Att 21-36 33-48
Yards per pass 4.8 6.8
Interceptions thrown 0 1
Sacks-Yards Lost 4-27 4-39
Rushing 99 83
Rushing Attempts 26 36
Yards per rush 3.8 2.3
Red Zone (Made-Att) 2-4 2-5
Penalties 8-84 7-54
Turnovers 0 1
Fumbles lost 0 0
Interceptions thrown 0 1
Defensive / Special Teams TDs 0 0
Possession 28:53 31:07

Philadelphia Passing

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	SACKS	QBR	RTG
Sam Bradford	19/25	236	9.4	1	0	4-39	59.9	118.1
Mark Sanchez	14/23	156	6.8	0	1	0-0	24.1	63.0
TEAM	33/48	353	8.2	1	1	4-39	—	91.7

Philadelphia Rushing

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
DeMarco Murray	22	61	2.8	0	13
Ryan Mathews	8	18	2.3	1	12
Mark Sanchez	2	4	2.0	0	4
Darren Sproles	3	0	0.0	0	2
Sam Bradford	1	0	0.0	0	0
TEAM	36	83	2.3	1	13

Philadelphia Receiving

	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	TGTS
Brent Celek	4	134	33.5	0	60	4
Zach Ertz	7	68	9.7	0	27	10
DeMarco Murray	6	58	9.7	0	20	8
Darren Sproles	5	34	6.8	0	10	6
Nelson Agholor	3	32	10.7	0	21	4
Josh Huff	3	23	7.7	1	16	4
Ryan Mathews	2	22	11.0	0	17	3
Jordan Matthews	3	21	7.0	0	9	5
Miles Austin	0	0	0.0	0	0	4
TEAM	33	392	11.9	1	60	48

Miami Passing

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	SACKS	QBR	RTG
Ryan Tannehill	21/36	217	6.0	2	0	4-27	47.3	94.3
TEAM	21/36	190	6.0	2	0	4-27	—	94.3

Miami Rushing

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Jay Ajayi	6	48	8.0	0	24
Lamar Miller	16	43	2.7	0	11
Jarvis Landry	1	6	6.0	0	6
Rishard Matthews	1	4	4.0	0	4
Ryan Tannehill	2	-2	-1.0	0	-1
TEAM	26	99	3.8	0	24

Miami Receiving

	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	TGTS
Rishard Matthews	5	93	18.6	0	43	6
Jarvis Landry	7	52	7.4	1	18	12
Lamar Miller	6	50	8.3	1	35	8
Greg Jennings	1	9	9.0	0	9	1
Dion Sims	1	8	8.0	0	8	1
Jordan Cameron	1	5	5.0	0	5	3
Kenny Stills	0	0	0.0	0	0	4
Damien Williams	0	0	0.0	0	0	1
TEAM	21	217	10.3	2	43	36

Philadelphia Defensive

	TACKLES				MISC
	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HTS	TD
Malcolm Jenkins	10	8	0	1	1	0	0
Mychal Kendricks	7	7	1	1	0	2	0
Walter Thurmond III	6	5	1	0	0	1	0
Connor Barwin	5	2	0.5	1	1	1	0
Fletcher Cox	5	2	0.5	0	0	3	0
Bennie Logan	4	4	0	2	0	0	0
Kiko Alonso	4	3	0	0	0	0	0
Byron Maxwell	3	3	0	0	1	0	0
DeMeco Ryans	3	0	0	0	1	0	0
Brandon Graham	2	1	0.5	0	0	1	0
Nolan Carroll II	2	1	0	0	2	0	0
Seyi Ajirotutu	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Vinny Curry	2	1	0.5	0	0	1	0
Miles Austin	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
E.J. Biggers	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Bryan Braman	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Taylor Hart	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Chris Maragos	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
TEAM	60	42	4	5	6	9	0

Miami Defensive

	TACKLES				MISC
	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HTS	TD
Kelvin Sheppard	11	8	0	2	0	0	0
Walt Aikens	9	8	0	0	0	0	0
Reshad Jones	9	7	1	1	1	1	0
Ndamukong Suh	8	7	1	3	0	3	0
Koa Misi	7	6	0	0	0	0	0
Neville Hewitt	6	6	0	0	0	0	0
Michael Thomas	6	5	0	0	0	0	0
Jelani Jenkins	5	5	0	0	0	0	0
Olivier Vernon	4	4	0	2	0	6	0
Derrick Shelby	4	3	1	0	0	0	0
John Denney	3	3	0	0	0	0	0
Jamar Taylor	3	3	0	0	1	0	0
C.J. Mosley	2	2	0	1	0	0	0
Brice McCain	2	2	0	0	0	0	0
Chris McCain	1	1	1	0	0	0	0
Zack Bowman	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Earl Mitchell	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Terrence Fede	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Tony Lippett	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Mike Hull	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Bobby McCain	1	0	0	0	1	0	0
TEAM	86	75	4	9	3	10	0