Janoris Jenkins insisted he was trying. He just wasn’t any good Sunday, one of those days he simply didn’t have it.
At least that was the excuse the team’s No. 1 cornerback offered for his poor performance in a loss Sunday to the previously winless 49ers that made it seem as if he has mailed it in on the season.
“I played to the best of my ability. It wasn’t a lack of effort,” Jenkins maintained Thursday. “I just think it was a lack of technique.”
That’s different from what Giants coach Ben McAdoo said earlier in the week, that his high-priced cornerback’s “desire to finish consistently needs to show up.” McAdoo suspended Jenkins the previous week for returning late from the bye week and failing to communicate with anyone from the team that he would be absent.
But Jenkins, a second-team All-Pro in his first year with the Giants last season, didn’t appear to be giving full effort throughout the game, and was beaten for a pair of touchdowns. He allowed Marquise Goodwin to race past him on an 83-yard score and whiffed on an arm-tackle effort as Garrett Celek was heading to the end zone on a 47-yard touchdown. There was also a 21-yard run by Carlos Hyde in which Jenkins didn’t appear to be going all out.
When asked about the criticism, Jenkins snapped.
“They question one game?” he snarled. “Question the other 36. Out of one? Question the other 36 games. Sometimes you ain’t going to have the best game. Everybody knows that. One out of 36 games? I don’t care what they say.”
Jenkins, who inked a five-year, $62.5 million contract with Big Blue in March 2016, has played 23 games with the Giants, including last year’s playoff loss. He later said the 36 games represented his body of work.
“Hey man, I got beat. I can’t put it on nobody else,” he said. “I got beat. Put that on me.”
Defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo agreed with Jenkins, saying he believes the cornerback is “all in,” and it was merely poor tackling technique, not poor effort. The two met one-on-one to specifically discuss his performance.
“He obviously agreed he didn’t have his best game and he realizes that,” Spagnuolo said. “I’m sure he’ll be better this week.
“I’ve got a problem with missing tackles, but I don’t have a problem with his effort.”
When the 29-year-old Jenkins was asked if he understood why there is criticism regarding his effort, he said: “People don’t know football, so they don’t understand. They just go off what they see.”
As was the case when asked about his suspension, Jenkins refused to say he would do anything differently if he could.
“Nah, I don’t regret them,” he said. “I can’t take them back. You’re not going to play great every game.
“Nobody is happy when you play that kind of football. … Mistakes are made. They get paid, I get paid. It’s going to happen, so it is what it is.”
On Wednesday, McAdoo called a rare film session for the entire team to watch together in which he focused on a handful of plays where effort was lacking and criticism was doled out. Usually, film is broken down separately between offense and offense. There’s no question a few of them involved Jenkins.
“It’s always tough, but as a pro you got to own up to it, got to man up to it,” the cornerback said. “That’s part of football. … It happened, it’s gone. I’m on to the next game.”
But that performance, he said, won’t have any impact on him Sunday. It won’t light a fuse or motivate him to play better.
“I stay motivated,” Jenkins said. “I’m self-motivated, baby.”
That didn’t appear to be the case against the 49ers.