A thoughtless move by A.J. Brown nearly cost the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday, but Nick Sirianni is more than willing to come to the defense of his receiver.
After Brown scored the go-ahead touchdown with about 1:45 left in their meeting with the Commanders, he was slapped with a taunting penalty for putting the ball between the legs of Emmanuel Forbes Jr. while he was still on the ground.
While the score put the Eagles ahead 31-24, Brown’s celebration nearly resulted in disaster for Philly. The penalty was enforced on the ensuing kickoff, giving the Commanders better field position to tie the game and force overtime. They did just that, with a Jahan Dotson touchdown catch as time expired forcing OT.
Although the Eagles would go on to win in the extra period on a Jake Elliott field goal, it’s fair to wonder if the game would have even reached overtime had Brown not handed Washington extra yardage.
The wideout took accountability for the mistake, and Sirianni defended his character Tuesday in his weekly interview on the 94WIP Morning Show.
“You treat everything as a teachable moment," Sirianni said. "Obviously, A.J. was coming off the field, I kind of was staring at him as he was coming off the field, and he knew he was wrong in that situation. Apologized to me, apologized to his team. I do want to say this first, there might not be a better person in our locker room than A.J. Brown.
“That’s why the guys voted him captain, I can’t begin to tell you how good of a person he is. But sometimes you get lost in the game and you get lost in the competitiveness of the game. He’s just got to control his emotions there in that particular case.
“I’m not saying anything to you guys that I wouldn’t say to him and I haven’t said to him, because we gave them an extra 15 yards and that ended up helping them score at the end of the game. He’s got to just control his emotions there. He can celebrate, I want them to celebrate, I want them to be themselves … but do it within the rules of the game.”