Brandon Graham Won't Let Eagles Quit, Prepares for 155th Career Game
PHILADELPHIA - Brandon Graham will play his 155th career game in an Eagles uniform on Sunday, which will tie him with Trent Cole for the most games played as a defensive lineman in team history, an achievement that perhaps nobody saw coming with the way his career began.
"It’s always special anytime I get to go out on this field," he said following Thursday's practice as the Eagles get ready to go to Green Bay. "I always kind of reminisce and look back and kind of look at the view that I’ve been looking at for 11 years now.
"It’s a blessing. All the stuff I’ve been through not knowing where I’m going to be, getting ridiculed by you guys, keeping me on my toes."
Graham's career got off to a slow start, with injuries playing a part of that, and he was written off as a bust by many after being taken in the first round of the 2010 draft.
Now, he is one of the team's unquestioned leaders, and as such, he isn't about to let anyone on the Eagles quit on a season that has turned south.
“I see a focused team that’s just trying to get it right, that’s really trying to really get it right because we want to prove all of you wrong,” said Graham, talking about the media. “Everybody wants to tank the season, saying it’s over, ahh, the sky is falling like coach said. You’ll see. We’re going to fight to the end.”
The Eagles defense, despite what you think of the job defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz is doing, has been, more or less, upholding its end of the bargain. It is ranked ninth overall in the NFL, eighth against the pass, second in sacks, fifth in third-down conversions allowed, and ninth in total yards per game.
The offense has been the slackers, and that always raises an interesting question about how a defense feels when its offense isn’t carrying its weight, when it seemingly has more three-and-out series’ than points scored.
“There’s no point in crying about what the offense is doing, it’s making sure we stay tight on what we’re doing and we’ll always be in the fight,” said Graham.
The defensive end, who leads the Eagles in sacks with seven and tackles for loss with 12, said when the offense is struggling, he and safety Rodney McLeod come together during the game to talk about what needs to be done.
They say, ‘We have to take it up another notch, get a turnover, flip the field and put the offense in a better position to where it doesn’t take them but 20 yards to get in because we got a strip-sack or an interception or whatever it is. Let’s start flipping the field for us rather than getting a three-and-out and they flip the field on a punt because the punt was good.'”
The problem with that is the defense’s one big weakness is its lack of forcing turnovers.
Graham was talking about strip-sack fumble forced by Fletcher Cox and recovered by Alex Singleton against the Browns inside Cleveland’s red zone. On the next play, Carson Wentz hit Richard Rodgers for a 19-yard TD pass.
There just hasn’t been enough of those sorts of turnovers, though Singleton also had a pick-six in a Week 4 win over San Francisco. That was just one of three interceptions so far for the Eagles.
That doesn’t mean Graham or his defensive teammates are ready to pack it in and turn their attention to an offseason that could have plenty of organizational upheaval.
As one of the leaders on the team, he won’t allow that to happen.
“I’m going to bet on us all the time because of the leaders on this team,” said Graham. “We won’t let you fall into that. If we hear it, we address it. I feel more comfortable now than ever.
“I’m addressing stuff that goes against what we’re trying to do. I can’t have people talking negative about what happened. I don’t care what happened. We still have an opportunity and our attitude on how we’re going to fix it. We can’t let stuff slide anymore, which we have because we’re thinking it’s going to come.
“No. You have to be right, you have to be real with yourself, we have to be honest with ourselves and let people know where they’re at and where we’re trying to go and see if they’re trying to go there, too.”
Get the latest Eagles news by joining the community. Click "Follow" at the top right of the EagleMaven page. Mobile users click the notification bell. And please follow me on Twitter @kracze.
