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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Jeremy Maclin, 23, is in his third season in the NFL, as a starting wide receiver in the Philadelphia Eagles's vaunted offense. A two-time All American at Missouri, Maclin was selected 19th overall in the 2009 Draft. This season, Maclin has 44 catches for 606 yards and four touchdowns. Once a week this fall, exclusively here at GQ.com, Maclin will deliver a new post that takes readers behind the scenes of the Eagles' much-hyped 2011 season\u2014and into the private, off-field life of a young NFL star. \n\n I went straight home after the Chicago game. It was time to take my mind off all the things we already know (it's now or never, we gotta get this thing right, we're beating ourselves), so I just settled in on the couch and got six of my friends together online to play the new Call of Duty game. We just joked around, immersed ourselves in the world of the game. That's usually how I unwind: video games or movies. I just got Bad Teacher on Blu-ray. Sometimes during the season I'm even able to make it to the theater for a 7 p.m. movie, which gets me home in time to rest up. I'm excited to see the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie, where he plays J. Edgar Hoover, and the new Justin Timberlake movie, In Time.\n\n I'm really not the guy who goes home and watches sports shows\u2014unless there's an actual game on, or there are certain highlights I ought to see. Otherwise, I'm just not interested in listening to people talk about and analyze and break down what I'm surrounded by every day. It's not that it bothers me to hear what people are saying about the Philadelphia Eagles, or to see teams like the Giants make great comebacks in the fourth quarter, where we've had so much trouble. It's just that I've never been too interested in, or influenced by, the external stuff. I've never worried about anyone else's opinion. I know that we've been beating ourselves with turnovers, mental mistakes, missed balls, missed blocks, missed opportunities. I know that it's all stuff we should be able to do without thinking about it at all, let alone overthinking it. I know that even with one of the worst turnover margins in the league, we've been in position to win each game we've lost. I know what frustration is.\n\n Frustration is 4th and 10, down by six, with just under two minutes left in the Bears game. I was lined up way outside on the left and coming straight across, underneath, five yards deep. With a situation like that, on fourth down with the entire defense focused on closing the space beyond the first down marker, you can often throw underneath and count on the receiver (in this case, me) to pick up enough yardage to buy another set of downs. That particular play was tough because Michael had to push up in the pocket and reset, so the ball ended up being a little high. I was focused first on just catching the ball, and I controlled it with my right hand before my left hand reached the ball to bring it down to my chest and clamp it in (with two defenders still between me and the first down, I was getting ready to bull up and get my body out there, so the ball had to be secure). But the process of getting possession took me off balance, and I never got the chance to extend. Just one of those things where, from start to finish, the play didn't happen in its ideal form. In other words: frustration.\n\n The week before a Monday night game, everything bumps forward a day. The week after, everything bumps back. Kind of like daylight savings: you gain some extra rest, and then you lose it right back. Less than six full days between Chicago and Arizona\u2014but we're professional athletes; we know how to get our bodies right. In the meantime, it's nice to have a third game in a row home in Philly. We have the best fans. They expect us to be great. We need to get it right for them. Despite the adversity, our team dynamics are perfect. There hasn't been any finger pointing, and there won't be. It's all encouragement, it's all picking each other up, it's all about the second half of the season.\n\n The first half is over.\n\n Follow Jeremy on Twitter: [@jmac18](http://www.twitter.com/jmac18)"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.gq.com/story/wide-open-jeremy-maclin-on-the-big-game-letdown>