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Post Snap With Malcolm Jenkins: 'We Can Be Even Better'

By Joseph Santoliquito

Malcolm Jenkins is a Super Bowl champion and veteran NFL safety. He sits down with CBS Philly's Joe Santoliquito every week. Don't forget to listen to Malcom live each Tuesday at 5 with Ant & Rob on 94WIP. All of Jenkins' Post Snap interviews are archived at CBSPhilly.com/Jenkins.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (CBS) — The Eagles now have a defensive template to follow, when they're in press coverage and throwing receivers off their routes. It creates a chaotic domino effect for quarterbacks in eying where linebackers are blitzing from, while feeling the heat of the defensive line.

When it's working as seamlessly as it did Sunday night the results are obvious—an Eagles' 27-0 shutout over the New York Giants.

The Eagles sacked Eli Manning a season-high eight times. They held a Giants team that had averaged 35 points in its previous three games to a mere 253 yards of total offense, and allowed the Giants to covert just two of 14 third-down conversions in posting their first shutout since the Eagles beat the Giants, 24-0, on Dec. 1, 1996 at Veterans Stadium.

The Eagles' pass rush reduced Manning to a skittish, scrambling mess. He had his worst performance of the season, completing 13 of 23 for a season-low 151 yards—and his longest pass was for a season-low 20 yards.

It was the most dominant display by the Eagles' defense in Chip Kelly's brief two-year tenure—and Malcolm Jenkins feels the Birds can do even better.

"The biggest thing about Sunday night was all three phases of our team were clicking at the same time," Jenkins said. "Our offense came out and started with a long drive that scored points, we were four-and-out, and gave it right back to the offense. Our punt return blocked another punt.

"Defensively, our plan was to disrupt their offense, because [the Giants] had done a good job of really getting the ball out quickly. We wanted to press the outside and take away their first and second reads and cause Eli to spend more time in the pocket and that gave our pass rush all of the time that they needed to get home and win their one-on-ones."

When the Eagles press, they're a far different defense.

"When we don't press, we allow offenses to get up the field, so we have to press and allow our pass rush to win," Jenkins said. "We definitely can be even better. There were still plays last night that we left out on the field. We performed well, but there was a lot more that we could have done. There were some turnovers on defense that we missed. We have something to build on here."

Jenkins said running back Darren Sproles is doing well, and was walking around on Monday. Jenkins said he didn't think the fourth-quarter injury that Sproles suffered was as bad as it looked.

Jenkins also made sure to praise the game plans of Eagles' defensive coordinator Billy Davis. Jenkins said Davis' strength is recognizing the strengths of the Eagles' personnel and when to use it.

"He does a good job of calling up the plays that we do best, he puts us in great position to make plays," Jenkins said. "He's not afraid to use dime packages, where he puts a bunch of DBs out there to match up and still pressure. We sat back a lot of times in a four-man rush and put max coverage in [Brandon Boykin got a season-high 42 snaps—Jenkins, Cary Williams, Nate Allen and Bradley Fletcher played all 66 defensive snaps] and took away windows. His game plans have been excellent."

The Eagles' team that Jenkins envisioned showed up Sunday night.

"When you have everyone playing all four quarters, and really doing their part, as it should be, you see how much of a dangerous team we are," Jenkins said. "We showed people what we can be—and we have to take that tempo and use it week after week. We're just starting. We have a lot of room to improve. We can more explosive defensively, taking the ball away. If we keep getting marginally better each week, I think we could be where we want to be as the season progresses.

Follow Malcolm Jenkins on Twitter @MalcolmJenkins and like him on Facebook.

 

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