Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Players to watch vs. Vikings in Week 5

1. Corey Graham

We’ll be sticking with the Eagles secondary for the final player to keep an eye on this week. Eagles safety Corey Graham started and played every defensive snap in last week’s game against the Titans.

Graham was called into action following the season-ending injury to starter Rodney McLeod. During the regulation period of the game, Graham was able to fill in valiantly for McLeod. He led the team in tackles with nine, including a nice tackle for loss.

But his performance in regulation isn’t what will be remembered by Eagles fans. In overtime with the Titans facing fourth-and-15 at their own 31 yard-line, Graham made a crucial mistake. He was clearly out of position when Marcus Mariota completed a 19-yard pass to Taywan Taylor for a first down.

If Graham was covering Taylor by the first down marker he most likely would have caused an incompletion and ended the game in favor of the Eagles. Instead, the Titans converted on that play and later scored a touchdown with five seconds remaining to win the game. In his first start with the Eagles that was going so well, it was a shame that it had to end so bad.

This week he’ll be facing the aforementioned group of Thielen and Diggs. Also, he’ll be going toe-to-toe with Cousins, who has a good history against the Eagles when he was the quarterback in Washington.

Graham is going to need to continue coming up with big tackles. But he can’t make any more crucial mistakes the way he did in Tennessee. As Graham learned last week, it only takes one mistake that can be the difference between winning and losing.