PHILADELPHIA -- Six days after publicly criticizing his team for not trying hard enough against the Cincinnati Bengals, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was impressed by the fight shown by his team in Sunday's 27-22 loss to the Washington Redskins.

"Max effort," Pederson said, when asked if the Eagles gave a total effort against the Redskins. "Max effort, max effort. This team responded. This team did an outstanding job today. We fought all the way to the end. There at one point, I thought we actually were going to fight. This is a resilient group. I'm just honored to be leading these guys.

"We fought all the way to the end. Any loss in this league is tough. The way the guys hung together and battled right to the end, yeah, it makes it tough."

Despite falling victim to a Kirk Cousins 80-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson, Eagles cornerback Leodis McKelvin agreed with his coach's assessment of the team's effort.

"We just have to keep fighting," McKelvin said. "Those guys over there get paid to make plays too. Plays are going to get made. There are a lot of athletes on the field, so it is just being able to keep going, playing and working your technique. You just have to keep fighting because you never know how things are going to work out in the end

"I think we have been doing that from Day 1. It wasn't like it was a challenge. We were going into our last four games. Somebody has to find a reason for what is going on. Obviously, everything is going to be pointed at the effort and things like that because sometimes you see it, in the past, and laid down. But other than that, this team has not laid down. We are still going to fight from an offensive to defensive to special teams. These guys are doing a lot. That was amazing to see guys out on the sidelines passing and snapping like we had practiced; it was fun. Sorry to say it was a loss, but we fought hard."

All week, players were asked to address Pederson's Monday comments, but veteran safety Malcolm Jenkins agreed with his coach's assessment that the Eagles showed maximum effort on Sunday.

"At the end of the day," Jenkins, one of the team's staunchest leaders said. "I think everybody can feel good about the fact that we went out there and played hard. Everyone on the team contributed. We had some adversity throughout the game but everybody stepped up. It didn't go our way, but that's life.

"I think guys understood the position that we were in. Whether it was pride, or whatever, the whole goal was to just leave it all on the field regardless of what the outcome is going to be. One thing we knew was we were going to play hard."

Not only did the Eagles give maximum effort until the moment Ryan Kerrigan sacked and stripped the ball from rookie quarterback Carson Wentz with :21 remaining, but very nearly came to blows when Darren Sproles was on the receiving end of a viciously dirty hit by Deshazor Everett on a punt with 11:38 to go.

"Anybody would have gotten the same reaction," Jenkins said, in response to the benches nearly clearing after Everett's hit on Sproles. "Especially when it's somebody like Sproles, a veteran, respected all over the league. It's tough to lose him."

Matt Lombardo may be reached at MDLombardo@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattLombardo975. Find NJ.com Eagles on Facebook.