Eagles’ Jalen Mills says he’ll come out of his corner fighting after another tough game

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz once again stood up for embattled cornerback Jalen Mills on Tuesday, and Mills spoke up for himself, after more than a week of media silence.

There is nothing either of them can say, though, that will give pause to the many thousands of fans who have identified Mills as a big reason the defending Super Bowl champions are 2-3 heading into their first NFC East matchup of the season, Thursday night at the New York Giants.

The only possibility there is for Mills and the Eagles' defense to stop getting gashed, and to lead the way to victory over Eli Manning, Odell Beckham Jr., and Saquon Barkley.

"Jalen has made a lot of plays for us," Schwartz said. "That first third-down stop [Sunday against Minnesota], he gets his hand on the ball, plays great technique."

To the fan base, Mills' day against the Vikings is mostly remembered for the 68-yard completion to Minnesota's Adam Thielen that set up a field goal. Mills bit on a double move, as he has done before. Schwartz said he gambled on a blitz and lost, trying to force a mistake.

"The play he gave up, I put that more on me than him," Schwartz said. "I put him on a big island. We were aggressive there. We had [the Vikings] backed up. We needed a momentum change. We had just fumbled the ball [at the Vikings' 5]. We were trying to get the sack. We're inches away from doing that. Quarterback put it up. … But I would rather take that and know that we were aggressive and we went after the quarterback right there and they made the play, rather than us have laid back there and tried to bleed it out, particularly at that point in the game."

>> READ MORE: Jalen Mills may be the least of the Eagles' defensive problems | Bob Ford

Schwartz said he thought Mills played with good technique.

"I mean, it's one of those things when you're a corner, you're going to get beat. I thought he bounced back well from that within the game, and battled, and did all the things a corner is going to do," Schwartz said. "I think it's just life as a corner. If you make a mistake, if you give up a play, it's there for everybody to see. You can't hide it.

"That's just the hat that those guys wear. They can't lose confidence because they gave up a play."

Mills, asked about the secondary and specifically him becoming the target of fan displeasure, said: "I'm not worried about it. At the end of the day, you've got to know who you are. You've got to know things are going to happen [to defensive backs].

"At the same time, we set a standard for ourselves, from last year. When you do set that standard for yourself, people expect you to play like that. You should expect yourself to play like that."

Does he hear what people say about him?

"I hear it from y'all. Y'all hear it from people. I don't buy into it. It is what it is," Mills, 24, said. "I set a standard for myself last year, and that's what people want to see. At the same time, I'm a perfectionist. I want to be perfect in everything I do."

A questioner asked Schwartz about Mills' on-field argument with Fletcher Cox, who tried to usher Mills away from a yapfest with Thielen. The questioner seemed to think Schwartz would disapprove. The questioner was mistaken.

Schwartz said that sort of thing happens a lot in the NFL.

"I like the fact that he was combative, and he was getting back. The one thing you don't want from a corner is him being shell-shocked, and Jalen has never been that way," Schwartz said.

Like other Eagles, Mills welcomes the chance to play again quickly, to not spend a full week rehashing how Thielen caught seven passes Sunday for 116 yards, or Stefon Diggs caught 10 for 91, Kirk Cousins finding them seemingly effortlessly despite pressure in his face, as the Eagles lost back-to-back games for the first time since 2016.

"That's kind of been my whole mindset right now. … [Schwartz] said, 'You can't dwell on what happened.' That's the good thing about having a Thursday night game, after what happened Sunday. Get a win, get that taste out of your mouth," Mills said.

To do that, the Eagles' defense is probably going to have to be better than it has been in the team's two previous road games this season, losses at Tampa Bay (393 net passing yards, four passing touchdowns) and Tennessee (397, and two).

>> READ MORE: Fletcher Cox's restructured contract could open the door for a running back acquisition, maybe LeSean McCoy?

The Giants are 1-4, but they played hard Sunday in a 33-31 loss at Carolina on a last-second, 63-yard field goal. Beckham took a break from giving advice to teammates long enough to catch eight passes for 131 yards and a touchdown, and he also threw a 57-yard touchdown pass to Barkley.

"They're putting 13 in a lot of different spots," in new coach Pat Shurmur's offense, Mills said of Beckham. "Last year, before he broke his leg, he was kind of at the edge. Now he's at the two spot, he's at the three spot, he's moving all around."

The Eagles have won four of their last five at MetLife against the Giants. Last year's meeting was a 34-29 shootout, even without Beckham, who was on IR, Manning throwing for 434 yards and three touchdowns in the loss.

"First division game. We gotta win. … We want to put ourselves in good position in the division, this is the one," Mills said.