Brandon Graham didn't need much time to speak his mind following the Philadelphia Eagles' 31-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. The Eagles were blown out from the start, getting outgained 255-0 at one point in the first half and eventually trailing 24-0 before Philadelphia even earned a first down.
Heading into the bye, Graham called a team meeting. Some things needed to be said.
"I said some stuff that's going to get them motivated," Graham told reporters after the game (via a transcript provided by the Eagles). "People knew what this was. We'll just leave it on the sideline talking."
The Eagles had 12 missed tackles in Sunday's loss and the offensive line allowed 15 pressures. The wide receivers had seven catches for 35 yards and Jalen Hurts had another red zone turnover. Everything that could have gone wrong for the Eagles, did go wrong.
"We didn't coach well enough. We didn't play well enough. And that's always gonna start with me," said Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. "For us to go out there and lay an egg and we're down 24-0, that's always gonna start on me, I didn't have the guys ready to start. Our fundamentals weren't what we needed them to be. We'll make sure we're working on that."
Even with the poor play, Graham sees some good things from the Eagles. A defensive captain, the 36-year-old Garham is seeing accountibility.
"I like where our head is, as far as, 'Hey man, that's me,'" Graham said. "Everybody's owning what they do. It ain't no pointing fingers. We're out there trying to get right, so we can win these games.
"We know it's a journey. ... Right now, people are going to say what they're going to say, but they ain't a part of the journey, you know what I'm saying? We know what we gotta do … I'm excited coming off this bye, getting everybody back and see what we got."
The Eagles head into their bye week with a 2-2 record, playing inconsistent in all four games. Philadelphia has plenty of players who could use the extra week to get healthy, as the Eagles were down several starters heading into Sunday.
"Bye week is coming at a good time," Sirianni said. "We gotta make some changes on what's going on fundamentally. I thought we had some missed tackles and thought we had some drops. Those are gonna stop drives and those are gonna extend drives.
"We didn't play well enough and we didn't coach well enough."