IRVING – There is an art to watching game film.
“Darren Woodson was probably the best I’ve been around,” secondary coach Dave Campo said. “He just understood the game. A lot of it is understanding the game, ‘Well, if they get into this formation, there’s not a lot of difference between this formation and they can run this same play.’ That’s the NFL.” As a rookie, Mike Jenkins put in the time in the meeting room or at home. He would spend hours watching this receiver or that run that route or this route. He would rewind and rewind and rewind. But he never really knew what he was looking at or what he was looking for. “It’s about the same time now but it’s more quality because I know what I’m looking at. Last year I didn’t know what I was doing with it.” Jenkins has started eight games this season and leads the Cowboys with three interceptions. The coaches have credited him with 38 tackles and he has a tackle for loss. He is tied with Terence Newman for the team lead with 10 pass deflections. Jenkins puts most of his improvement in his second year on his preparation. “On the field, I didn’t know route combinations,” Jenkins said. “I was just going by what I see. It kind of showed because I was thinking too much, trying to learn the system. Now I know.” Each week Jenkins breaks out a new notebook for the upcoming opponent. “I go through the quarterback first and then I go to the receiver,” Jenkins said. “It’s the edge receiver I’m going against the majority of the time, so I’ll study that receiver and I’ll never look to the other side of the field because I’m not going to be over there. A lot of guys try to find route combinations and go from the tight end to the receiver. I don’t do that. I try and keep it simple.” He charts each drop back by the quarterback with down and distances. He checks the types of routes the receiver likes to run and how he gets off the ball for certain routes. “I’m looking from the quarterback to the receiver because if it’s a three-step drop I’m not going deep at all,” Jenkins said. “I learned the last year. I didn’t know that at all. That’s the one thing coming from a man system to a zone system that’s helped a lot there.” And Tony Romo has helped, too. “I don’t get any credit for that,” Romo said. “Those guys over there work their butts off to play well and understand concepts and schemes to make them good football players.” After his teammates and Campo, however, Jenkins does give Romo credit. It started with a casual conversation about routes to look for from the rookie corner to the star quarterback. The first tip came last year against the New York Giants and Jenkins intercepted an Eli Manning pass and returned it for a touchdown. Ever since, Jenkins has gone back for more tips, one that worked two weeks ago against Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb. “Against Philadelphia he told me to stay on the receiver’s top shoulder because he likes to put the ball on a line instead of putting air under it,” Jenkins said. “If I know he’s going to put a lot of air under it, I’d play underneath, but I played on top because of what he told me.” Campo has noticed a difference. “I don’t know that he pays attention any more, but he’s learning,” Campo said. “You don’t have to tell him things three or four times. You tell him once and he’s paying attention. He’s getting better at it.”
