Malcolm Jenkins: Eagles as a team didn't have 'a lot of fight' in loss

PHILADELPHIA --Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins pointed to a lack of fight out of some of his teammates as a primary reason for his frustrations following a 48-7 loss to the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.

"It was embarrassing, quite frankly. It was one of those things that I didn't feel like as a team we had a lot of fight. I would rather get thrown out of a game than just lay down and take it," Jenkins said at his locker stall Tuesday. "There were a ton of frustrations, one being obviously me going back to New Orleans -- it's a game that meant a lot to me -- but just the demeanor of the team really bothered me.

"At this point in time, we need to figure some things out about ourselves."

Jenkins was clearly upset postgame. Normally the last one to leave the locker room, he exited quickly without being interviewed. His responses to reporters who caught up with him in the tunnel were short and pointed.

Jenkins was irritated in-game that his former coach, Sean Payton, went for it on fourth down in the fourth quarter with the Saints up 31. After Alvin Kamara beat Jenkins on the play for a 37-yard touchdown, Jenkins gave the middle finger to Payton on the sideline.

The bulk of his anger, though, stemmed from what he saw out of his own team.

"You're going to get blown out regardless. You're either going to get blown out swinging or you're going to get blown out laying down," he said. "And I think you had a little bit of both."

Jenkins' comments come one week after center Jason Kelce, another leader in the locker room, said the team was missing the appropriate degree of accountability. The defending champs have lost two in a row and sit at 4-6 overall.

The addition of receiver Golden Tate at the trade deadline has not yet had the desired effect. The offense has scored just 27 points in the two games in which he has played. Tate has seven catches for 67 yards in that span.

Offensive coordinator Mike Groh acknowledged Tuesday that "it's been challenging to integrate him."

Defensive end Brandon Graham agreed with Jenkins' stance to a degree, saying that "the spirit wasn't as high when we were getting beat" and that "everybody was kind of in their feelings a little bit," but said he doesn't think anyone laid down.

Jenkins pointed at himself as well, saying he has to play better, and established what the standard needs to be moving forward.

"Some things are just non-negotiable. We can deal with guys getting beat. Mistakes happen. If you don't win at the point of attack, cool. But if you don't know what you're doing or if you're not giving us everything you've got, especially when our backs are on the wall, then I think 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 non-essential personnel," he said.

"Not to say that there are guys that aren't playing hard or aren't 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."