Jenkins makes Boykin and Eagles secondary better

Later, some 11 hours after the Eagles had completed their 30-27 victory Monday night over the Colts, after he and Malcolm Jenkins had been at the center of the play that had swung everything in the Eagles' direction, Brandon Boykin took to Twitter to send a crude and caustic message to his critics.

With 5 minutes, 15 seconds left in the fourth quarter, with the Colts leading by seven points and positioned on the Eagles' 22-yard line, Boykin laid his hands on wide receiver T.Y. Hilton as quarterback Andrew Luck threw in their direction. Hilton went down as if he'd stepped through a trap door in the Lucas Oil Stadium turf. Jenkins intercepted the pass, and the crowd showered him, Boykin, and the officials with boos over an illegal-contact or holding infraction that went uncalled.

No matter - the Eagles' best playmaker in their secondary last season and their best one this season went sprinting to the sideline together, having combined to change the course of a game their team once seemed bound to lose.

On Tuesday morning, Boykin fired back, posting an airplane-safety-style cartoon entitled "Here's What To Do With Your Opinion" intended for those who believed he'd committed a penalty. The cartoon showed a woman writing her opinion on a piece of paper, crumpling the paper into a wad, and inserting it in an inappropriate location. He deleted the tweet minutes later.

It would have been better, of course, if Boykin hadn't posted it in the first place, mostly because it was a dumb, immature thing to do and Boykin, who is 24 and in his third NFL season, ought to know better. Besides, in the game's immediate aftermath, a knowing smile crept across his face when he was asked if he'd gotten away with holding Hilton.

"I don't think so," he said. "First of all, I was in the 5-yard zone. Second off, he fell. He flopped, pretty much. He did that against Cary [Williams] and didn't get a call. He was looking for the flag."

Still, for a secondary that the Eagles targeted as their primary area to improve in the offseason - signing Jenkins and Nolan Carroll, drafting Jaylen Watkins - Boykin's display of defiance had to be another welcome indication of the difference so far between last season and this one.

After spotting Jacksonville's Chad Henne those two first-half, short-field touchdown passes in Week 1, the Eagles held him to 99 passing yards in the second half, then kept Luck to 178 on Monday, the third-lowest total of his three-year pro career. And if in Boykin, who finished second in the NFL in interceptions last year with six, the Eagles have one of the more dynamic nickel cornerbacks in the league, in Jenkins they finally have a safety both smart enough and physically gifted enough to stabilize what had been the team's most volatile position.

"There's a guy back there making the calls and being distinct in terms of getting everybody set back there," Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. "He always seems to have a knack for making big plays. Came up huge again [Monday] night. He's around the ball. Made a couple of pass breakups, tackles, what we expected when we got him here. He was obviously our top target, and I think it's paying off for us right now."

Jenkins produced a busy stat line Monday: six tackles, two passes defended, that vital interception. "He's probably one of the smartest guys I've played with," Boykin said, "always calm, always trying to keep everybody ready. The reason he's making plays is he's a great player."

Truth be told, the Eagles had been looking for someone like Jenkins since they let Brian Dawkins walk away after the 2008 season. The safety position had become an abscess that the team had failed to treat. So the mere presence of Jenkins - who won a Super Bowl with the New Orleans Saints as a rookie in 2009 and started for them over the next four years - has made and should make Boykin, Williams, Bradley Fletcher, and the rest of the Eagles' defensive backs better.

"It's not that I wasn't here, but I think whenever you add more veterans who have been in these situations, been in these games, who can bring that calm to the younger players, the more the merrier," Jenkins said.

"I'm not the only one here. You've got the DeMeco Ryanses, the Connor Barwins, the Cary Williamses, and everybody who's not flinching. No matter what happens, no matter what it's looking like, guys are working and staying positive."

That's on the field. Now, if they can just do the same on social media, everything will really be peachy.

@MikeSielski