Early Birds: Miles Austin's playing time; 15 points per game on defense; RBs in the passing game

1) When Miles Austin signed with the Eagles, he was expected to be a role player. Nine games into the season, he's playing 52 percent of the offensive snaps. That's the second most of any wide receiver on the roster, and the most of the outside receivers.

"Well, we've had some injuries, and so we had guys in and out of the lineup," offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur said. "We use the whole roster, as you know, in terms of the receiving corps. Some games, he plays more than others. He's had, in the last couple weeks, probably more snaps than you're used to seeing. That's all."

But the Eagles had all their receivers Sunday, with Nelson Agholor back in the lineup and Riley Cooper healthy. Austin played 45 snaps – not far behind Agholor's 53 and Cooper's 52. It was ahead of Josh Huff's 42 snaps. Austin had no catches.

"We were getting Nelson back in there, you know, so we weren't totally sure how many he could get, and then we were playing a bunch of different groupings, and we were trying to play with tempo," Shurmur said. "There are times when you're trying to play fast when you kind of maybe planned on having another guy in there, but then [you say] 'No, no, you stay in there because we're going to go fast.' "

Austin said he did not have an expectation of how much he would play when he signed with the Eagles. The veteran receiver has 12 catches for 212 yards this season. That's one catch every 29.5 snaps. It's the worst rate on the team. Jordan Matthews has 10.2 snaps per catch, Josh Huff has 17.7 snaps per catch, Riley Cooper has 28.5 snaps per catch, and Nelson Agholor has 28.6 snaps per catch.

"I think he's competing hard," Shurmur said. "I think, like everybody on offense, you know, he had a handful of plays he'd like to have back."

2) Bill Davis' goal is to lead the NFL in points per drive on defense at the end of the season. He said that would mean the Eagles allow an average of around 15 points per game. When he studied scoring defenses, he saw 15 points usually put the defense in the top 2-3 in the NFL.

"The greatest ones of all-time hung around 13 and 14, which is very difficult to do, but it's the goal we're setting for ourselves," Davis said. "If we're not in the teens – really, at the end of the day, you have to defend enough to win the game. Points allowed is the only thing that matters. The rest of the stats don't. Our goal is about 15 [points allowed per game]."

The Eagles allow 20.4 points per game. That's in the top 10 in the NFL. It's not satisfactory to Davis.

"The points have to be at 15, and that's where our goal is and we're going to continue to fire at that goal," Davis said. "It's like three turnovers per game. We didn't have any [against the Dolphins]. I thought our safety had the best shot at that turnover, but it wasn't. We'll continue to fire away at turnovers and points allowed."

3) Dolphins running back Lamar Miller caught six passes against the Eagles, including a 35-yard reception and a touchdown. Around the NFL last week, running backs had big catches. Jeremy Langford had an 83-yard catch for Chicago. Matt Jones had a 78-yard catch for Washington. Charcandrick West had an 80-yard catch for Kansas City. Davis said it's becoming popular around the league.

"The screen play is always a challenging play, especially when you're pressuring," Davis said. "In the screen play, they hope we blitz so they get five guys behind the running back and then they have more blockers in front of the rest of our defenders. Is it a screen play you're talking about or is it the wheel routes? A lot of times, that whole concept is a pick and we're trying to fight over the top. It's kind of the play of the year. Everybody is getting that wheel route going with the x-nasty and blocking you."

zberman@phillynews.com

@ZBerm