On Sunday the Eagles stayed in the playoff picture by defeating the New York Giants, as now they are only one game back of the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins. The team might have Malcolm Jenkins to thank for the victory, as he was the one who made the defensive changes in the 2nd half that kept the Giants to just 3 points and allowed the Eagles offense to climb their way back from the 16 point deficit they faced.
After the game, Jenkins revealed to media that he talked to Jim Schwartz at halftime to make some changes.
Jenkins knew the team needed to make things simple since there were four players on defense with limited playing experiences (Cre'Von LeBlanc, Chandon Sullivan, De'Vante Bausby, and Nathan Gerry). Once Schwartz simplified the play calls, the defense settled down and did enough to secure a victory.
Jenkins deserves kudos for using his voice and locker room leadership to tell Jim Schwartz what he needed to do. At the same time though, it is a serious problem that Schwartz couldn't realize the need to change on his own or sooner. Let's hope in future games he is quicker to pull the trigger to switch things up on defense if they aren't working.
