Frustrated Jenkins calls out teammates
PHILADELPHIA >> His frustration boiling over, Eagles veteran Malcolm Jenkins flipped the bird to Sean Payton Sunday.
The Saints had a 38-7 lead when Payton, who selected Jenkins in the first round of the 2009 draft, called an insult-to-injury wheel route to running back Alvin Kamara against a secondary so injury depleted it consisted largely of bargain basement pickups right off the streets.
Kamara scored and Jenkins flipped off his old boss, which he suspects will result in some sort of fine from the NFL.
“He called that play just because of me,” Jenkins said Tuesday.
Maybe so. And Jenkins wasn’t the only Eagle upset with Payton’s antics. Jenkins just took it more personally largely due to his tepid relationship with Payton, who let him walk in free agency and instead signed safety Jairus Byrd to a $56 million contract. Byrd was cut a few unproductive years later.
The finger also symbolized, to a lesser extent, how it felt being part of a weaktackling defense that gave in against the Saints.
Jenkins didn’t say quit, but it was clear how he felt about the effort he saw from his teammates in the Big Easy.
“It was just embarrassing, quite frankly,” Jenkins said. “It was one of those things that I didn’t feel like as a team we had a lot of fight. I’d rather get thrown out of a game then just lay down and take it. There’s a ton of frustrations. Obviously, me going back to New Orleans, that was a game that meant a lot to me. But just the demeanor of the team really bothered me. Just the frustration of having guys that you work hard with and spend a lot of time with get injured. It was just a rough day overall. But at this point in time we need to figure out some things about ourselves.”
The Eagles (4-6) are 6-point favorites this Sunday when they host the New York Giants (3-7), the outfit they trashed, 34-13, earlier this season.
The Giants have won two straight games, albeit against clubs with a combined record of 5-15, most recently the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-7).
With Saquon Barkley leading more of a ground and pound attack, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., of all people, said the squad would run the table and win the NFC East pennant. With a three-game home losing streak, the Eagles are going to have to depend more on their own play than the usual shortcomings of Eli Manning to keep that success going. Manning won six of his first eight career starts against the Eagles but has gone 4-16 since December 2008.
The Eagles are 1-3 since defeating the Giants in October. They’ve averaged just 17 points in that block.
Tight end Zach Ertz, among the few Eagles offensive players to remain productive, is just as concerned about the vibe in the locker room as Jenkins. Ertz doesn’t feel exactly the same as his teammate, though.
“Did he think guys weren’t trying?” Ertz said. “I can only speak for myself. Malcolm obviously has his opinions. He obviously saw the defense. That’s the film he watched. I watched the offensive film and I felt we were trying until the end. It’s not like Carson (Wentz) was just laying back there and we were handing the ball off. We were still trying to be aggressive. I just didn’t think we played well enough as a team. I’m not going to let that one game define us. But I mean, obviously overall the intensity just has to pick up. Even if you think you’re giving 100 percent, there’s got to be something that everyone on this team can be doing more of.”
Changing the culture this late in the season isn’t going to be easy. Center Jason Kelce brought that up before the Eagles played the Saints when he railed that there was a lack of accountability throughout the team, from coaches to players.
That said, there’s no time to waste. The division-leading Washington Redskins (6-4) are up against it as they lost starting quarterback Alex Smith for at least the season. They oppose the second-place Dallas Cowboys (5-5) at AT&T Stadium.
“We start in practice,” Jenkins said. “We’re critical about what we see on tape because that’s out there. But some things are just non-negotiable. We can deal with guys getting beat. Mistakes happen. But if you don’t know what you’re doing, if you’re not giving us everything you’ve got, especially when our backs are up against the wall, then that’s something as leaders of the team, we need to nip in the bud because we’re at that moment where we can’t carry nonessential personnel. Not to say that there aren’t guys that aren’t playing hard or giving it what they’ve got, we just need every drop of it at this point. And we’re going to demand that from the top of the roster all the way to the bottom.”