Malcolm Jenkins shines in 100th game of his Philadelphia Eagles career

When it’s all said and done, Malcolm Jenkins’ 100th game will be one Philadelphia Eagles tell their grandchildren about.

When we all get a little older, we’ll all have stories to tell about the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys rivalry. We’ll talk about great coaches and bounties. We’ll talk about games that determined division titles., but we may or may not talk about Malcolm Jenkins and the way he played in 2019’s Week 16 matchup.

When it’s all said and done, the Eagles’ 17-9 defensive masterpiece over Dallas in Week 16 of 2019’s regular season won’t be good enough to crack our list of the 15 greatest victories over Dallas, but it will get the nod for being one of those games that fall in the ‘honorable mention’ category.

There’s no way we can tell the story about that defensive masterpiece without telling the story of Malcolm Jenkins. In his 100th game in Eagles green (that includes five playoff game appearances), ’27’ dominated.

No, you can’t tell that by looking at the stat sheet (five total tackles with four being of the solo variety). but Jenkins was everywhere. Timely stops like his first-down saving tackle on Ezekiel Elliott and a huge pass deflection on an early third down helped spearhead one of the best performances by Philly’s defense all season.

Game number 100 would result in an Eagles win. Were there any knockout shots, a la his hit on Brandin Cooks in Super Bowl LII? No, there were not. Were there any highlight-reel plays like his goal line to goal line pick-six versus Tom Brady? No, that didn’t happen either.

You see, Jenkins quietly did what he did all season. He spoke, told his teammates to treat this like any other game, and they listened and won. Quietly Jenkins has had a solid year. Everyone says he’s regressed. Everyone says he’s slowed down, but he leads the Eagles in total tackles through fifteen games, and believe it or not, he’s tied for fifth place in team sacks. Jenkins does it all for Philly.

He does so with minimal fanfare. He does so with little credit for what he does. He does so while getting blamed for trying to cover for teammates, allowing casual fans to make claims like ‘he was out of position’ when, in actuality, he was trying to do too much.

That’s okay though. Jenkins’ value has been proven. 100 games in the Eagles green are in the books. Just do us all a favor in the meantime. When you tell the grandkids about Week 16 in 2019’s regular season, please make sure you mention ’27’ somewhere in the story.