34-year-old veteran Eagles defensive end Brandon Graham was asked about his team's underwhelming defensive performance in their Week 1 win over the Lions.
"We see where our issues are," Graham said. "We have to get better with tackling, number one, because a hundred and something yards rushing is not acceptable for our standard what we trying to do. So we know we've got some stuff to work on and we thank the offense for carrying us, special teams did a great job. Now, we got to pick up our slack."
The Eagles allowed 35 points and 386 yards of offense to the Lions, but the offense carried them to an important 38-35 Week 1 win. Unfortunately, the Eagles did lose defensive lineman Derek Barnett to a torn ACL, ending his season.
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BG is all to familiar with the feeling, as he tore his Achilles in Week 2 of last season, missing the 2021 campaign.
"Man, I'll just make sure I'll be there for him," Graham said when asked about Barnett. "I'll just make him feel a part of it because I know how I felt last year. But then I had guys that motivated me, he was one of them. He said that I got my back and that was the first thing I said to him. Like, 'I got your back through this man. Whatever you need from me I'm here for you and you know you got your brothers in your d-line room and on defense that know what you put in this year. And we gonna make sure we carry out what it is that we set our minds to do this year.' I know that he got a good attitude about it. He cried about it a little bit. But that's a tough a dude. I'm gonna go out there and take a piece of DB with me when I'm out there in the moment."
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