NFC Notes: Stephon Gilmore, Jalen Hurts, Wink Martindale, Cowboys, Eagles, Giants

Cowboys

Cowboys veteran CB Stephon Gilmore had a great game against the Eagles on Sunday. Gilmore later explained that Eagles WR A.J. Brown calling him at the start of the game “lit a fire in me.”

“I just didn’t like how he called me old at the beginning of the game,” Gilmore said, via DallasCowboys.com. “So it lit a fire in me a little bit. I was mad. The only thing I could do was show him I was still here, and I think I did that today. I’ve been doing this my whole career. Covering the best guy and following him. It’s exciting because you know the ball is coming your way. I get up for those types of moments.”

Eagles

Eagles QB Jalen Hurts took the blame for the team’s loss and said that he needs to do a better job of protecting the football.

“We all have to be better,” Hurts said, via PFT. “That starts with me. That starts with me as a quarterback. That starts with me as a leader. The tone that I set. And so I embrace that challenge. I have to do a better job of protecting the ball and creating that energy for us. I just have to be better with that.”

Giants

Giants DC Wink Martindale discussed the reported tension between himself and HC Brian Daboll.

“We’re fine,” Martindale said of his relationship with the team, via ESPN. “It’s the same thing it was last year. It was just different because we were winning more games. I always say I owe my players my composure. I don’t see eye to eye with my wife all the time.[Daboll’s] the head coach and it’s my job to forward his plan. And that is what I’m going to do. We haven’t even talked about it because, like I said, to me that is where it gets back to the players and being focused on winning this game. I hate the fact that it’s a story because it takes away from how good Bobby Okereke is playing. How good Kayvon Thibodeaux is playing. How good Dexter Lawrence is playing. To me, it’s about the players, the Maras and the Tisches, and this organization; I said this is not a stepping stone, it’s a destination. And it still is.”