Jennifer King stepped in as the running backs coach of the Washington Football Team on Tuesday, making her the first Black woman to be a lead position coach in an NFL game.
Having been promoted from coaching intern to the team’s assistant running back coach in January, a Covid-19 outbreak saw King promoted to lead – deputizing for Randy Jordan – at Washington’s rescheduled visit to the Philadelphia Eagles.
King received a glowing appraisal from Washington head coach Ron Rivera following her promotion, who said that the “sky is the limit” for the former seven-time All-American tackle football quarterback.
“She is a hard worker, a great communicator and a quality person,” Rivera said in January.
“Coach King is always eager to learn and has shown tremendous growth since starting here last season … the sky truly is the limit for her.”
‘The job isn’t done’
Despite taking an early lead, a fierce comeback from the Eagles saw King and Washington fall to a 27-17 defeat – striking a devastating blow to their playoff hopes.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, returning after an ankle injury, rallied his team with a dominant performance – throwing for one touchdown with a pass to Greg Ward and running for two more to lift the Eagles to 7-7.
Washington led 10-0 at the close of the first quarter following Antonio Gibson’s touchdown and Brian Johnson’s field goal, but were ultimately overcome by a bruising Eagles offense – bested comfortably on total yards by 519 to 237.
The team arrived in Philadelphia knowing a win would put them ahead of their opponents, but defeat for Washington left them 6-8 with their playoff dreams in tatters – though they will have an opportunity to take revenge against the Eagles on January 2.
For the Eagles, that reverse fixture is sandwiched by crucial games against the New York Giants (4-10) and the NFC East leading Dallas Cowboys (10-4).
“The job isn’t done – nowhere near done,” Hurts told reporters after the game. “We know what we want to accomplish.
“You just have to have that mentality of not being denied … with all the adversity we had this week, with all the adversity we had today early in the game – we didn’t let that affect us today and I’m so happy about that.”
Rams ground Seahawks
Tuesday’s other rescheduled game saw quarterback Matthew Stafford throw two touchdown passes to Cooper Kupp to steer the Los Angeles Rams (10-4) to a 20-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks (5-9).
Stafford went 21-from-29 for 244 yards and an interception, throwing two second-half touchdown passes to Kupp to see off the Seahawks, who had led early in the third quarter after DeeJay Dallas ran for a touchdown.
Their third consecutive win, the Rams now sit level on 10-4 at the top of the NFC West with the once-soaring Arizona Cardinals – reeling from two straight defeats to the Rams and the Detroit Lions.
“What an incredible job by our organization as a whole … so many people were instrumental in even getting us to a position to play this game,” Rams head coach Sean McVay told reporters.
“This was a heavy week, navigating through all the things that we went through, but for our guys to come in here and perform the way that they did … this was a big-time win for our team.”
