Malcolm Jenkins: 'I Don't Think Anyone Is Satisfied'
Malcolm Jenkins is a Super Bowl champion and veteran NFL safety. He sits down with CBS Philly's Joe Santoliquito every week. All of Jenkins' Post Snap interviews are archived at philadelphia.cbslocal.com/tag/post-snap.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Malcolm Jenkins doesn't miss anything-even during the bye week the Eagles veteran safety lives, eats and absorbs football. Over the weekend, he went out to Columbus, Ohio, to see his alma mater, Ohio State, beat Michigan State. Then he settled in to see the Atlanta Falcons give the Eagles a nice gift in the 27-7 pounding of the Dallas Cowboys.
Jenkins watched the 5-4 Cowboys—sans Ezekiel Elliott, who was serving the first of his six-game suspension.
"They're always a tough team, they play hard and are well coached," Jenkins said of the Cowboys. "They have some great players, and obviously their quarterback is doing some special things. They also have an offensive line that is the strength of what they do. They had some serious issues at left tackle, and without Zeke.
"But they were still able to run the ball. It wasn't as effective as they were in the past, but they can still line up and move people. You saw that especially in the second half of the Atlanta game. We'll have to come in prepared. We're on the road and we know they're going to make adjustments. They'll still commit to the run."
Dak Prescott's mobility will be a concern, despite left tackle Tyron Smith being less than 100-percent. The Cowboys have plenty of firepower with Cole Beasley, Jason Witten and Dez Bryant.
The bye week will help. The Eagles appear healed and rested. Dallas is hobbled.
"As a team, having a bye at this point in the season is great, because you do get a chance to rest and prepare for the long stretch ahead," Jenkins said. "We're healed up and we know the next stretch will be a lot of physical games and intense games. We'll need that rest moving forward. From an intensity standpoint, we want to come off this bye week and ratchet it up a little bit.
"It's been fun what we've been able to do, but I don't think anyone is satisfied. There's another few more gears that we can hit. We're trying to get there as fast as we can."
A big key to this season is the insulation that's been placed around this team. Every player on this team heard how great the 8-1 Eagles were during the bye. It appears it's time to rinse those thoughts away.
"The hardest part, and the thing that you worry about the most is hearing how good you are," Jenkins said. "Some people are losing, some are winning. People's records are changing. They're talking about there they stand. It's up to us as leaders on the team that we find something this week to nitpick and get angry about.
"Whether it's in practice to spark guy's competitiveness, or something between players during the offense and defense. We have to find a way to generate that competitiveness to get us back into that groove that we were in and focusing on getting better. We're not done working. The reason why we're 8-1 is because of the preparation being put in and the hard work. We have to get back to that as quickly as possible."
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