Deciphering Kris Jenkins Message

In spite of coming away with a win, Kris Jenkins was not happy with the play of his team and questions whether they have the mental toughness to win more.

"My thing that I said we have an issue with is expressing the issues," Jenkins said. "We know what all of our problems are. We don't express all of them.
"I can kind of give an example: When you win a game, you win a game and that's it. It's on to the next game. When you win a game and you go into the next game and come out and score 14 points and then you coast because you feel like you won the Super Bowl, that's when you have a problem and that's what I'm talking about."

Thank you Kris. I had felt the Panthers overlooked Houston but I didn’t have any real proof, just a hunch. Scoring 14 quick points fed right into that "coasting" mentality. Kris then sums up the phenomena:

"It's an issue and I think it's been overlooked in the past," Jenkins said. "... The issue is that we don't handle success well. ... We won (Sunday). But can we win again? And that, I guess, is a challenge to my team if I'm saying it in the paper. We won. Can we put two together? Can we put three together? Can we find a way to win without getting all full of ourselves?"

Now that is the real question. Are we still living off our reputation and 2006 SB favorite status? It seems to some degree we are. I know this defense is not up to 2003-2005 standards so far in 2007. Two sacks in three games? Jenkins is smart enough to know something is wrong. He hasn’t called anyone in particular out but I’ll bet he has someone or a few players in mind. I’m not going to speculate in this post and I don’t think that is Jenkins style anyway. I don’t see it as some cryptic message to Panther management. I think he knows what it takes to win week in and week out in the NFL and the Panthers are not measuring up yet.

On a lighter note, he shows some humility and makes light of his off-season drama:

Who? Me? They just started liking me a week ago," said Jenkins, who spent most of the off-season working with a personal trainer in Maryland while the team reportedly was attempting to trade him. "I was the fat guy swimming in the bay that was supposed to be somewhere else. I'm not a talker. For the most part, I just play and do my job and keep my mouth shut."

What a contrast with my previous post!

Seriously, this is where leaders are made, in the crucible of high expectations and self-reflection. This is were leaders step out of their comfort zone and speak out against self-defeating attitudes and a lack of focus. Kris Jenkins just might by the leader this defense needs.