Nick Sirianni talks Boston Scott, Kenneth Gainwell performances vs. Browns

The Eagles narrowly beat the Browns in their second preseason game, but ended up 21-20 at the whistle. There was a big commitment to the run game early on — especially compared to last week — and Nick Sirianni talked about Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell’s performances. He also spoke to reporters about the long touchdown pass by Reid Sinnett to Devon Allen in the second half.

Sirianni explained his decision to rest the starters, citing two good joint practices against the Browns on Thursday and Friday. He said that they treat those joint practices as controlled games, and have three “games” in four days is a lot on their bodies.

Here’s what else the head coach had to say:

On the running backs

After not playing in the first preseason game, Boston Scott and Kenny Gainwell had some big workloads in the first two series of Sunday’s game against Cleveland. Sirianni said they were able to pound it a little bit early on. He admitted that it wasn’t always pretty or clean, but they were able to put their head down and make things work.

“I thought Boston had a great first series. It was a 13-play drive, so it’s like get him out of there after that, and then Kenny had a — what was Kenny’s series? A 12-play series, and I thought that was good. I said get him out after that. So, good week for those guys.

You know, Kenny had not his best day on Friday, but then he came out and showed out during the game.”

He was asked about the 3rd and 13 run from Gainwell, and the head coach admitted that Gainwell is just a tough-nose kid who is going to be really physical with the football. They trusted him in that scenario to make the play, and he did.

“I looked at when I yelled at him on Friday, and really, I said after he scored his touchdown and came out, I go, you know — I just said to him, I go, ‘I love you man,’ and he said the same thing back. I said, ‘You know on Friday was maybe the first time I’ve yelled at you in two years.’”

Sirianni went on to say that Gainwell didn’t think anything of it and likes the hard coaching.

On Devon Allen’s TD catch

Sirianni had a big smile on his face when talking about the long touchdown pass to Devon Allen. The head coach said it was great to see, especially because Allen — the Olympian — hasn’t played football for awhile, so he’s slowly getting back into the groove and is doing a nice job.

The head coach credited Reid Sinnett for the great pass, Allen for the great route and catch, but also pointed out that the protection was really good on the play and Sinnett had plenty of time in the pocket.

On Brandon Graham