Post Snap With Malcolm Jenkins: We're Still An Elite Team
Malcolm Jenkins is a Super Bowl champion and veteran NFL safety. He sits down with CBS Philly's Joe Santoliquito every week. 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) — They cloistered together on the plane ride home, each looking over each other's iPad's, pointing things out, going over the game they had just played. Malcolm Jenkins couldn't fill his head with enough of it, to the point he watched the Eagles' 24-20 loss to the Arizona Cardinals twice on the way to Philadelphia.
There was no panicking. No one pointing fingers at anyone. In fact, there was a feeling that "We're going to be all right here, we know what we did wrong and we know we can correct it," Jenkins said.
"Guys on this team care about winning. Guys had their iPads on the plane, looking back over the game, and I watched the game probably twice. Guys care on this team and that just shows immediately after the game, everyone on this team was looking to get better," said Jenkins, who has a history of winning, from three-straight Group 4 New Jersey state championships at Piscataway High School, to winning a Super Bowl his rookie season with the New Orleans Saints.
"It's good to see that in everyone's eyes, no one was discouraged from the loss, and everyone was chomping at the bit to get back out again and perform better. A bunch of guys had the game already uploaded on the iPads, talking about the things we have to do going forward, and that's just the players. They were evaluating themselves, talking about some of the things we have to change and what we have to practice going forward."
Jenkins said Arizona is a very good team. But he also said the Eagles didn't help themselves with the mistakes that were made. He felt a few things need to be corrected, and "we're going to be good."
"Look at our two losses, they all came down to the very last play of the game, literally two yards away from winning, and that's with all of the mistakes that we piled up," Jenkins said. "We clean up one or two of those things and we're going to be okay. Some reporter after the game asked me if I still thought we were still an elite team. I had to laugh. I'll take this team over anyone in the league. I think we're an elite contender that when we're clicking on all cylinders, we can beat anybody in this league.
"I think what we need to take going forward is what we need to do better to put us in a position to win. We need to play smarter football, how do we eliminate our own mistakes, so we can as a team impose our will on other teams?"
If there was one thing learned from the 75-yard touchdown pass from Carson Palmer to John Brown, it was that the Eagles have to fully commit to the blitz—and not back off, which is what the Eagles did on the winning play.
"In that situation, our DNA is, when the game is on the line, we blitz," Jenkins said. "That play, we showed blitz, and dropped off into a zone. When we didn't blitz, Palmer obviously held on to the ball a little longer and it's why we didn't get the pressure that we normally get. [Brown] ran right through the coverage and he made a phenomenal catch and it was a phenomenal throw. In hindsight, I think we all felt, if that's going to beat us, we just have to go after people. Everyone in the building was expecting us to blitz, and they did a great job of counteracting that.
"Nate Allen played really well, and that play wasn't all Nate's fault. I could name five other plays in that game and if we take one of those plays away, we win the game. What happened there was a combination of things—and you can't blame Nate. He played a real solid game, everyone played a real solid game. The margin of error in this league is small. If I could, to be honest, I wouldn't take anything back. The guys played hard and everyone played to the finish. I'm proud of the way guys fought."
The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation has launched an exclusive apparel campaign kicking off with Malcolm's "NoPhlyZone." Purchases will support the Foundation's programs supporting youth and families in under-served communities. Visit www.themalcolmjenkinsfoundation.org.
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