First week. A lot to work on. A team on the opposite side of the football with firepower, starting with a dynamic quarterback who can drive a defense crazy with his arm and his legs.

The end result? A lot of good, enough to build on after a 24-22 win over Washington for an Eagles defense that looks to be even better on Sunday in Nashville against the Tennessee Titans.

"We can build off the great tackling that we had, the fact that we played together, we played tough and we played our hearts out," outside linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. said. "We're still getting used to each other. We have a great vibe, we have great energy, and we have to keep that going."

The tackling was the main agreement for four players from the defense who talked about the Week 1 performance. The Eagles, defensive tackle Jordan Davis said, missed four tackles for 14 yards. That's pretty good. No, that's really good.

And the goal is to keep building, keep being technically sound, keep the intensity and the group mentality of "running to the ball" at a high, high level.

"The tackling was really good and for a lot of teams when you go into a season and you haven't played in the preseason a whole lot, that can be a struggle for a lot of teams," Davis said. "As a unit, we did a good job and we need to build on that. We need to get a QB on the group better than we did last week. Early in the season, you see a lot of sacks that come from blitzes and games up front, not winning one-on-one battles."

It was, for sure, an encouraging start for the defense, one that has extremely high expectations. Communication, said safety Andrew Mukuba, was a huge plus, a great sign for a defense with some new pieces.

"We played together as a team. It wasn't perfect, of course, but it was a good start," said Mukuba, who played for the first time since suffering a season-ending injury in Week 11 last season. "The communication was great at all three levels and that was important, something we can grow from."

Washington quarterback Jayden Daniels, one of the premier players in the league at his position at evading the defense, gave the Eagles some moments where they just couldn't get him down, and that, said Davis, "is something we need to do better. Get the quarterback to the ground."

But the defense, with coordinator Vic Fangio certainly stressing the teaching points as well as the successes, came away feeling like Week 1 was a positive start to the 2026 campaign.

"When you start a season and you don't play in a preseason game, you don't tackle, it can be dicey," linebacker Zack Baun said. "But we drill it so much in practice that I felt it showed up in the game."

Now it's on to Tennessee to play second-year quarterback Cam Ward running a system orchestrated by former New York Giants Head Coach Brian Daboll.

The Eagles have a sense of what to expect, but, then again, it's Week 2 and things are hard to predict this early in a season.

"They're going to be sound and try to make explosive plays," Davis said. "We have to be ready. They will be physical. The quarterback is growing. We have to be better than we were last week. That's the mindset we have."

And that's the goal for Nashville: Take another step forward and come home with a win to get to 2-0 in 2026.