Anybody who says, "Any win is a good win," didn't see the Eagles' second-half defense Sunday.
Yeah, the Eagles won their opener in Detroit, but their surgically rebuilt defense did everything it could to give the game away.
“We still have to communicate a lot better,” Darius Slay said. “We’ve got to minimize penalties, we gave up a 3rd-and-12 run, that’s stuff you just have to clean up. A lot of times we should have been off the field on third down, we all know that.
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“We just have to execute our job better. That’s on us as players. We’re out there on the field, coaches give us a call, and we just have to execute it. We just have to make a play. … We’ve just got to execute a lot better at the end.”
The Eagles survived the Lions 38-35 despite allowing 2nd-half touchdown drives of 75, 75 and 72 yards, they won despite allowing 181 rushing yards, they won despite nearly blowing a 17-point 3rd-quarter lead, and they won despite whiffing on a frightening number of tackles.
The new improved defense at least this week looked significantly worse than last year’s unit.
And this was against a team that had the fewest wins in the NFL last year.
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“We’ve got some stuff we need to work on,” Brandon Graham said. “But you know how hard it is to win in this league. It could have gone the other way for us. A win is a win. We’re going to clean it up, but I’m just happy with how we fought to the end.
“We left some plays out there. When we were up, we should have kept the 17-point lead. But when you mess stuff up and you’re not on your details, that’s when stuff starts slipping away. We have to make sure we clean up running the ball because 150-something yards is not acceptable.
“But we know what we need to work on. … It’s the NFL. Just when you think you’ve got a team? It’s like, man, it can get ugly real fast. We have to make sure we stay focused on every detail that can hurt us in the end. I’m just happy we knuckled up and delivered our last blow at the end.”
The Eagles only allowed 35 points twice last year – to the Chiefs and the Cowboys the first month of the season.
You can understand that. New team, new staff, new scheme.
But this? After adding so many new pieces?
This can’t happen.
“We could be a lot cleaner, but we’ll take the win,” T.J. Edwards said. “Just a hell of a job scrapping to the end, honestly.”
The Eagles took a 31-14 lead on Kenny Gainwell’s touchdown run 4 ½ minutes into the third quarter.
The Lions then scored 21 points in almost exactly 15 minutes.
Only a clutch late drive by the offense to run out the clock saved the Eagles from a possible loss and saved the defense from a colossal meltdown.
“There’s a lot of improvement (needed),” newcomer Chauncey Gardner-Johnson said. “First game, gotta work on tackling, gotta work on stopping the run, but as a whole, we looked good. We played our ass off. We’re ready to keep it rolling. 1-0.”
The Eagles simply couldn't tackle Philly native and St. Joe's Prep grad D'Andre Swift.
Swift’s 144 yards on just 15 carries are the most against the Eagles in a season opener since 1960, when Bobby Mitchell had 156 and Hall of Famer Jim Brown 153 in the Browns’ 41-24 win at Franklin Field in 1960.
Swift’s 144 yards are also the most against the Eagles in any game on 15 or fewer carries since Mitchell’s 156 on 14 carries that same day.
Did the Eagles’ tackling issues have anything to do with the fact that they don’t tackle to the ground in training camp?
“No, not at all,” T.J. Edwards said. “That’s just us. We’ve got to be better at tackling. Just got to get back to what we do, get back to the lab tomorrow and we’ll correct what we need to correct. I thought the energy was great, the effort was great, we’ll get right back to it.”
Nick Sirianni tried to deflect the blame for the second-half defensive collapse against an offense ranked 25th in the league last year at 19 points per game.
They almost doubled that Sunday.
“We’ll look at it, we’ll clean it up, and like I said, it’s always nice to know that, hey, we’ve got a lot to clean up,” Sirianni said. “And that’s offensively, defensively and special teams, but we were able to get a win. And in this league, on the road, on your first game, we’ll take it any way we can get it.
“I’m the head coach, and my name’s on everything, and so I’ll just talk to (Gannon) and see what’s going on and see what we need to do to adjust.”
No tackling in training camp? A lot of new pieces on defense? Fired-up opponent?
“We don’t make excuses around here,” Graham said. “Whatever it is we need to fix, we’ll fix it.”