Graham ready to start vacation the right way
PHILADELPHIA >> The United Kingdom is infinitely less exotic than Bora Bora, where Eagles veteran Brandon Graham and his wife honeymooned.
After the Eagles take on the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday at Wembley Stadium, the Grahams will be able to rate the UK as an in-season getaway destination.
“Yeah, I’m staying there for the week,” Graham said. “I’m going to be there for the bye. I’m just going to enjoy everything, go to different little cities while I’m out there. The wife has our itinerary already. I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t looked at it. I’m just worried about this game. I’ll worry about all the other stuff later.”
Graham is so focused on the Jaguars game (9:30 a.m. Philly time, Channel 6 and WIP 94.1-FM), he’s ignored the rest of the trip. The game is critical for the Eagles (3-4), who need a win to stay within shouting distance of the Washington Redskins (4-2), the only team in the NFC East with a winning record.
What’s troubling to Graham and the Eagles is losing two games over the last four weeks despite building second-half leads of 14 or more points, including a 21-17 setback this past Sunday to the Carolina Panthers. For now, the vibe in the locker room is that the slide is correctable.
“I don’t think nobody is panicking right now,” Graham said. “That’s usually when things change, when people panic. We know what we did. We know what we gave up. We let two games slip, Tennessee and this past game. We went up, we got a lead and we blew it at the end. Coaches want us to finish and play a collective game like we did against the Giants in all phases – special teams, offense, defense – and just keep building off it. And the biggest thing is not allowing the outside world to kind of break us up.”
Eagles head coach Doug Pederson created plenty of fuel to stoke his charges into an usagainst-the-media frenzy by coming across as goofy with explanations about how the last loss has taken the pressure off his players.
Pederson didn’t sound like a Super Bowl winning coach with his strange answers to questions throughout the week. And this is the weekend his Jaguars counterpart, Doug Marrone, can gain a measure of revenge for being portrayed in an unflattering light in Pederson’s biography, released during the offseason.
Author Dougie portrayed Marrone as a cat who was coaching not to lose in the AFC title game against the New England Patriots last January.
The concern for Graham and the Eagles is the Jaguars are making their sixth straight appearance in London, supplying them with considerably more experience in terms of what it takes to compete five time zones away from home. Last year the Jaguars, who weren’t supposed to be great, embarrassed the Baltimore Ravens, who were unbeaten, 44-7 at Wembley. Blake Bortles threw four touchdown passes and Leonard Fournette, now sidelined with a hamstring injury, rushed for a score.
Bortles has been so turnover-prone this year he was replaced by Cody Kessler last week. Bortles will start again this week. And he’ll have newly acquired running back Carlos Hyde in his arsenal.
“I see a competitor,” Graham said of Bortles. “He hasn’t had his running back, Fournette, and I think they play well together. Being able to run the ball in the early part of the season was good for him. But now that they’ve lost Fournette, it’s a lot different. With Bortles, I just think he’s just trying to find himself. It’s similar to how Dak (Prescott) was when he lost Ezekiel Elliott. They both play well together. So, I think once he lost him he was trying to find his way.
“We’ve got to make sure they don’t get that running game started.”
To accomplish that. Graham would be happy playing more snaps in the wake of the season-ending loss of Derek Barnett. Rookie Josh Sweat will work into the rotation at defensive end. Though Graham thinks Sweat is a capable replacement, the game is a Spartacus moment for the Eagles, who need a victory badly.
A win sure would make the rest of Graham’s trip fun. For now, the favorite stamp on his passport is Bora Bora, even if he did have to make dinner reservations the night before because of the geography. In terms of water and pure beauty, it doesn’t get much better.
“It was pretty cool,” Graham said. “If I had to do it again we would go with a whole bunch of couples. It was one of those things where you kind of do the same things over and over but it’s fun when you’ve got other people around too.”
For Graham, what would make ‘UK’ a stamp to remember on the passport is a ‘WIN.’