Kenneth Gainwell drew the wrath of Eagles fans Sunday for fumbling the ball away at the three-yard line with his team trailing the Washington Commanders in the first half.
A touchdown could have been a turning point for the Eagles, who rallied in the last minute of the half to get within four points on the first of A.J. Brown’s two scoring receptions in what became a too-close-for-comfort triumph, 38-31.
Painful as that was, it paled in comparison to Gainwell’s loss of focus at the intermission. The account, ML Football on X (formerly Twitter), posted a screenshot of a direct message critical of Gainwell, as well as Gainwell’s response. The critical DM read, “Hold on to the football you bleeping bum.”
Gainwell’s, response: “Lil boy don’t text me.” The only problem was that the response was apparently sent during halftime of the game.
The ML Football account helpfully reminded Gainwell to get off his phone
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni confirmed the exchange without providing details of what was transmitted. His response was anything but lol.
“As far as the report, y’all saw it,” Sirianni said. “Of course, we talked to Kenny about that. These guys have some time away from us when we get into the locker room where they sit down at their locker. They do whatever is going to take their mind and just calm it. This is part of these guys’ lives, some of that stuff. He’s sitting at the locker.
“Should he respond to somebody that’s DM’ing him? No, he shouldn’t respond to that guy or that girl at all. And so, yes, of course we talked to him about that, to be locked in and focused and not worried about outside noise. He knows he made a mistake responding back to that person, who I’m assuming is an Eagles’ fan and then took a snapshot and posted it.
“That’s a whole different set of issues if he’s an Eagles fan. I won’t even get into that. Yeah. I’m done. I’m not even going to say any more.”
Gainwell had two carries for minus-2 yards and five receptions on five targets for 36 yards. He played 19 snaps, compared to 44 for D’Andre Swift, who led the Eagles with 16 rushes for 57 yards and a touchdown. Boston Scott played just one snap, catching a four-yard pass.
Though the Eagles rushed for just 59 yards, Jalen Hurts and his sore knee credited with just four runs for six yards, Sirianni gave the running backs a vote of confidence.
“I’ve got a lot of faith in these guys,” Sirianni said. “Alright, Kenny had a fumble this week, but he had an unbelievable run the week before against Miami. One reaction to a mistake, if we reacted sometimes maybe I feel like how people want us to react at times, then all our guys make mistakes. We wouldn’t have anybody to put in. … I still have a lot of faith in these guys, and I still have a lot of faith in Kenny.”
Hurts, of course, threw for 319 yards and four touchdowns to lift the Eagles to the win. He completed 29 of 38 passes, several of them short throws with the exception of Brown, who hauled in eight passes for 130 (16.3 ypr) and DeVonta Smith, who got wide open to grab a 38-yard scoring pass.
Add it all together and Hurts finished with a 135.7 rating.
Sirianni was taken aback when asked if Hurts’ knee stiffness and relative lack of mobility this year and in years past positively impacts his passing efficiency.
“That’s an interesting outlook and I’ll look into that, that’s for sure,” Sirianni said. “But I think there are just so many different variables. Who you’re playing, the style of game you’re in, all those different things. I think Jalen has continued to develop as a passer and I felt like he was making huge strides around that time in 2021 that led to the strides he made in 2022. We were playing pretty good football there.
“But I just think there are a lot of different variables with that. If there is something, we’ll try to unplug it. He just played an outstanding game and he’s been on a little bit of a roll here lately.”
Sirianni didn’t offer it, but when Hurts has been banged up, the offense typically has gone with more short, high-percentage throws to take the place of the run game. Tight end Dallas Goedert, Smith and even Brown, with his strength and ability to run after the catch, all were a big part of that Sunday.
Source: Berkshire mont
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