Eagles counting on Graham; they lack depth at outside LB

The focus when something goes wrong on defense against the passing game is always on the back end. You see the cornerbacks running two or three steps behind the receivers. You see safeties arriving too late to help. You see linebackers unable to cover running backs and tight ends. You see chaos and quickly pin the blame on the guys with all the rules stacked against them.

We saw lots of that in the Eagles' Monday night loss in Atlanta, which is why Byron Maxwell has quickly become the $63 million question mark rather than the solution to the secondary problems that led to coach Chip Kelly's major offseason overhaul.

No one, not even defensive coordinator Bill Davis, is going to absolve Maxwell for the well-compensated cornerback's inauspicious debut with the Eagles. After practice Thursday, Davis detailed two big plays in which Maxwell used bad technique before giving the cornerback a vote of confidence.

The best remedy for suspect secondary play is pressure on the quarterback and that was sorely missing, too, against the Falcons. The Eagles finished with one sack of Matt Ryan - Fletcher Cox got to the quarterback on the second play of the second half - and four hurries.

"They were getting the ball out fast and it was getting frustrating at times," outside linebacker Brandon Graham said. "But I know it's a long season and that happens. Sometimes they take the D line out of the game. This week, I don't think that's going to be the case."

It cannot be the case if the Eagles hope to rebound from their opening-night loss in the home opener Sunday against the Dallas Cowboys. If they give Tony Romo too much time too often, we are likely to see more of the same from the secondary even with star receiver Dez Bryant out of the lineup.

What's concerning is that the bulk of a team's pass rush in a 3-4 defense is expected to come from the outside linebacker spot. A year ago, for example, the Eagles finished tied for second in the NFL with 49 sacks and 26 1/2 of those came from the outside linebacker trio of Connor Barwin (14 1/2), Trent Cole (6 1/2) and Graham (5 1/2). According to sportingcharts.com, those three also combined for 38 hurries, which is an underrated stat because they can lead to turnovers, incompletions and other positive defensive plays.

Cole, of course, is gone now and the Eagles gave Graham a four-year deal with a guaranteed $13 million to take his place as a starter.

"He had a good year last year in a limited role and we need him to just build off that and give us that plus a little bit more," Davis said.

That's feasible but not guaranteed. Despite playing more than half the defensive snaps in just four games last season, Graham led the Eagles with 15 hurries to go along with his 51/2 sacks. That's a lot of pressure from a part-time player.

Can he hold up playing 70 percent of the time or more? It's something he has never had to do over the course of a full season. You wonder if it will have to be more than the 69 percent of the plays he participated in Monday because the Eagles do not have anyone nearly as good as him as the No. 3 outside linebacker this season.

They hoped that role would be filled by 2014 first-round draft pick Marcus Smith, who had a decent preseason debut but then sat out the final three games with a hamstring injury. Kelly was noncommittal when asked if Smith might play this week. Even if he does, it's no sure thing he will play the role with the kind of competence needed against a team like the Cowboys.

In Smith's absence, the Eagles have used defensive end Vinny Curry as the third man in at outside linebacker. Kelly admitted that Curry had some issues against the Falcons.

"He was a little up and down there," the coach said. "A couple times, he lost containment. But I thought the transition for him, never having played there . . . we felt he did a good job. But we have got to get dialed in a little bit on responsibilities."

Graham said the Eagles are not asking Curry to worry too much about coverage, which is a difficult transition for a defensive end to make. It is especially difficult when the move is made in the middle of the preseason rather than during the offseason.

"They are making it a little easy on Vinny right now by not asking him to do too much," Graham said. "It's the real deal now and we can't have too many mistakes in real games. I think they're going to try to put Vinny in the best position possible as far as just going straight ahead and don't worry about dropping too much."

Curry is terrific at going straight ahead. His nine sacks last season were the most by any defensive end in a 3-4 scheme. But at some point a quarterback will try to exploit his positioning as a 3-4 outside linebacker and at some point the lack of depth at that position could really hurt the Eagles. In fact, it could be argued that it already did against Atlanta.

bbrookover@phillynews.com

@brookob