Eagles' Defensive Captain: 'Chill Out And Have Fun'

During the Eagles’ surprising 34-17 loss to the New York Giants on Oct. 9 at MetLife Stadium, veteran safety Reed Blankenship sensed a problem on defense.

The captain was seen trying to rally the troops on the sideline to stop the bleeding.

“I was just telling everybody to settle down, play our style of ball,” Blankenship said when asked about his on-field quorum. “Obviously, they jumped on us pretty quick, and you could tell some of the guys were a little rattled at the moment.”

The uncharacteristic performance against a team the Eagles have dominated in recent seasons was highlighted by a rare lack of physicality. 

Head coach Nick Sirianni has added that rare failure on the physical side to his messaging this week as Philadelphia tries to restore order to what had been a one-sided rivalry.

"The message this week is, be physical," Left tackle Jordan Mailata said. "Let's be physical up front, both sides of the ball and dominate.

"That's the message."

“Absolutely,” Blankenship told Eagles On SI when asked about the physical mindset. “We need to get back to being physical and playing our style of ball."

Playing a division rival twice in 17 days has its pros and cons, according to Blankenship.

"I would say the 'pro' is that you already know who they are," the veteran safety said. "We played them on a short week the first time and a lot of the material that we studied was sped up. I'm sure we'll see some unscouted looks still.

"At the end of the day, they're going to do what they want to do and obviously they've got some playmakers on their side of the ball right now and they're playing confident football, so it's our job to put a stop to it."

Blankenship noted that he wants the defense having fun again, something that started in Minnesota last week and could continue against a Giants team that has lost 12 consecutive games at Lincoln Financial Field. 

“At the end of the day, we just got to play our [brand of] ball, have fun with it,” Blankenship said. 
”Football is already hard. Don't make it harder than it is so, like I said, it's us against us at the end of the day.

“We're the only opponent in the room, and we say that every time we take the field. 
So, like I said, everybody just chill out, have fun, and just play ball."