Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott praised the New Orleans Saints offense, but also took full responsibility for the defense's performance in the 48-22 loss at Lincoln Financial Field Sunday.

"I give all the credit to the Saints, Coach (Sean) Payton, and Drew Brees," McDermott said in the locker room after the game. "The whole offensive personnel and staff do a good job of keeping you off balance, and they did that today.

"We just need to execute and that begins and ends with me."

The Saints ammassed 421 yards of total offense, 288 of which came from the arm of Brees.

"Any time you face one of the better quarterbacks in the league you have to be on your 'A' game," McDermott said. "And we weren't on our 'A' game today."

The defense was placed in a tough situation at the beginning of the second half, twice having to defend a short field after turnovers. Both turnovers would led to Saints touchdowns.

"That's part of playing," McDermott said. "Wherever we take the field, whenever we take the field, we've got to stop them. That's our job.

"The tackling needs to improve. There's a lot of areas that need to improve, and that was true last week and it's true last week. It's like I said last week, it's important that we continue to develop as a defense, from week to week. And there's not going to be any knee-jerk reaction. We're a good defense but we need to play well and that starts with me."

As disappointed as McDermott is in the effort, he's ready to move forward.

"We can take this in terms of facing adversity and coming together as a team," he said. "There's highs and lows in every season and I think, if you look back at the great teams over the years, there's highs and lows, and it's how they handle those times that defines how high we fly here."

-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 5:40 p.m., September 20