The Eagles Pro Bowl defensive back took a few minutes to talk to the New York Giants media in advance of their Monday Night Football game. The game is virtually meaningless to the G-Men; it means everything to the Birds.
Eagles Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins took a few minutes to talk to the New York Giants media this week.
One of the questions he was asked was about fans behavior at the stadium when the away team’s bus is pulling in.
Giants running back Saquon Barkley had talked about last year getting off the bus in Philly and how tough Eagles fans can be. He said, ‘You don’t get waves, you get a different kind of hand gesture when you get off the bus in Philly.’ Jenkins, who grew up East Orange, New Jersey, was asked how Giants fans treated him when he gets off the bus...and were there any memories of coming to MetLife Stadium? How do Giants fans treat the Eagles?
“I feel like every stadium you pull up you get probably the middle finger everywhere,” Jenkins said. “But that’s normal at any stadium. There’s nothing out of the usual that I remember coming to MetLife.”
Jenkins was asked if he thought he was done facing Eli Manning.
“No, football has a funny way of working itself around like that,” he said. “So, no, not really.”
More questions from Giants media:
What was the reaction when you guys found out? What does it change for you guys?
“Not much of a reaction, it’s just changing up the mindset. I think they are two different quarterbacks. I think Jones is obviously a little more mobile, holds the ball a little longer and looks for those throws down the field. Whereas Eli is really better when he can get the ball out of his hands quick. He knows how to read the blitzes and knows where to go with the ball. You’ve got to figure out how to make him hold it a little bit longer. The offense is still the same when you watch the tape. I think the way that it’s run from the quarterback position is a little different.”
Is it safe to say you don’t expect to see any RPO stuff Monday night like you would have if Daniel Jones was in there?
“No, I don’t think that’s safe to say at all. I think Eli knows how to count bodies in the box and get rid of it if it’s not a good look. Especially the way that we pack the line of scrimmage and really focus on the run, we can be sure that we’ll still see those RPOs.”
Saquon had two of his best games of his career so far against you guys last year, and in the last six games he hasn’t looked like quite the same guy. What do you see from him last year versus this year when you look at the tape?
“I still see the same guy that’s really explosive that can get the ball, can run with power behind his pads, can make guys miss in the hole. He’s had that ankle injury, but I think he’s come back from that. I just think he’s the focal point of their offense, so I think he gets a lot of attention. A lot of people have been gang tackling him, so he hasn’t had all of the explosive plays that we saw last year when it was his first year in the league and everybody was kind of getting used to him. But you know, he’s still in my opinion the toughest to tackle in the league right now at the running back position.”
Why have you guys had so much success against the Giants do you think over the last four to five years?
“I don’t know, each game takes a life of itself. I think when we look at those we’ve got to look at them individually. I think defensively we’ve had some good games, offensively we’ve done well, and special teams. Like I said, each one takes a life of itself but as we look forward to Monday, none of those games that we’ve won in the previous years really matters for anything.”
You say they don’t matter, but when you’re on the field do you use those as trash talk? Like, ‘Hey, we own you guys in this rivalry,’ kind of thing?
“No, not really.” *
Follow Al Thompson on Twitter @thompsoniii
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