Regardless of how high or low expectations were set for the Eagles in their opener, they dealt with their share of adversity Sunday.
Philly dropped the Patriots 25-20 in their opener over the weekend, a game that saw an array of high highs and low lows for both teams. The Eagles stormed out to a 16-0 lead, but slowly proceeded to cough it up over the course of the next three quarters. It took some impressive defensive stands late in the fourth to keep the game out of reach.
The fallout from the Eagles performance has featured its share of criticism -- from the performance to the conditioning. The Patriots missed the playoffs last season, while expectations for the Eagles are through the roof after reaching the Super Bowl last season. With that theory in mind, Philly should’ve walloped New England.
But the reality is more nuanced, and regardless of how things “should’ have gone, the Eagles had to fight all afternoon for the win – much to the delight of Brandon Graham.
“Well, you know, we got tested early on as far as having our first game, a lot of guys – of course, like you said, the fans – everybody expected last year’s success to just pop right off again. No, we’ve got to build it up,” Graham said Tuesday in his weekly appearance on the 94WIP Morning Show. “I do love that we have some adversity, we had some sudden change moments – especially when Jalen (Hurts) fumbled the one and the defense, we just went out there and we didn’t even blink.
“That’s already a great start for me, I know we’re going to get things fixed, and the whole goal is to get the win, especially on the road. So, I think we did what we were supposed to do in those moments when we needed to rise up. I was very proud of the resilience we had. …
“I was more proud of that part of the game than anything. I know we’re going to get everything fixed as we go, the expectations just were a little high from everybody, which we understand because of the type of team that we want to be. So right now, we’re just going to keep building like we’re doing, one week at a time.”