After loss to Saints, Eagles players concede there’s ‘more work to do than we thought’

As cameras swarmed his locker stall, Brandon Graham pulled a plain black T-shirt over his head.

It wasn’t the shirt the Eagles defensive end was hoping to don after the Eagles’ 20-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, but it was indicative of the work the team still has lingering into the regular season’s final week.

After the humbling loss, both the attire and the first-round bye that come from clinching the No. 1 seed in the NFC still evade the Eagles with a Week 18 matchup against the New York Giants looming.

Graham made a point of visiting with offensive players before leaving the locker room a few minutes after emphasizing the importance of avoiding division after consecutive losses late in the season.

“Stay tight, stay together,” Graham said. “Nobody said it was going to be easy. People are going to give us their best shot. We know our issues, we know what’s up. Just stay focused on the task at hand and don’t look too far ahead.”

The task at hand is still relatively simple for the Eagles. The Giants clinched a playoff berth and are locked into the No. 6 seed going into their trip to Lincoln Financial Field next weekend. For the Eagles, a win is the easiest path toward getting the following week off and securing home-field advantage through the playoffs.

“It’s one of those things where we know what’s at stake,” Eagles edge rusher Haason Reddick said. “We have no room for error if we want to get that first-round bye. If we want people to come play through the Linc, there’s no room for error. I know every man knows that and I expect every man that touches that field next week to come out and play with some type of anger and to be ready to go win that game.”

Especially considering the Giants could rest their starters and quarterback Jalen Hurts has a chance to return for the game, things are still favorable for the Eagles. Coach Nick Sirianni said after the game that Hurts was close to playing this week after being limited in practice on Thursday and Friday. Fivethirtyeight.com still gives them more than a 90% chance of clinching the conference either through a win or through losses by the other top teams in the race.

The bigger question is how the Eagles will respond to the adversity of losing to a lesser Saints team one week after a tough loss to the Dallas Cowboys. Reddick said the loss to the 7-9 Saints shows the Eagles aren’t as good as they may have felt coming into the game.

“It just shows that we have more work to do than we thought,” Reddick said. “It’s going to put some urgency on us because we know what the next game means now. The next game is the most important game of the season just because of what we’re playing for. Here it is. It’s a challenge. Let’s see how we respond.”

The Eagles defense surrendered an early lead but eventually found its footing and held New Orleans to 13 points going into the fourth quarter.

The offense struggled mightily early, only converting one of the five third downs the Eagles faced in the first half and running just 17 plays. The group steadied some in the second half, but Gardner Minshew threw a pick-six to Saints cornerback Marshon Lattimore, crushing the Eagles’ comeback efforts.

The Eagles offensive line had several unforced errors; Jordan Mailata was the only offensive lineman not called for a penalty during the game.

Center Jason Kelce, who drew a false-start penalty as well as an illegal-man-downfield flag, had a similar sentiment to Reddick’s.

“I’m not even focused on [seeding] right now,” Kelce said. “I could give two [bleeps] about clinching or if we’re in first-place seed right now. We’ve got to get a lot of things fixed. I’ve got to get a lot of things fixed. That’s what I’m focused on. We’re going to make some corrections and move on to New York.”

The two losses aren’t reason for panic, though, Kelce said.

“We’ve overcome games like this this year,” Kelce said. “I don’t anticipate this derailing anything. I look forward to getting back on the field, to tell you the truth.”

Like Graham, receiver A.J. Brown approached a group of defensive players to thank them for giving the team a chance to beat the Saints. Brown was the intended receiver on the pick-six and said he tried to alert Minshew that Lattimore wasn’t in press coverage but could not get the backup quarterback’s attention.

Brown, admittedly frustrated after the game, said the loss served as a reality check: The championship aspirations the Eagles have could reduce to nothing quite quickly without a course correction.

“I think guys just got to come together,” Brown said. “Guys just have to see what they really want to do. This [stuff] could be over.”