The Eagles turned the ball over on Sunday when Isaiah Rodgers pushed a Buccaneers player into Cooper DeJean during a punt return, resulting in a muff. Afterward, he said what he thought he did was legal:

If the gunner runs into the returner, it’s a penalty, but you can’t just shove the guy into your teammate. In this case, the Eagles defense got a stop, forced a punt, and they gave the ball back to Tampa, who scored to make it 21-0 with 14:09 remaining in the second quarter.

After the game, Rodgers went on Twitter to do the “everyone makes mistakes” thing –

Yeah, of course, everyone makes mistakes. Shit happens, you fix it, everyone moves on. The difference here is that Rodgers didn’t know the rule, so fans and media are going to look at it not as a mistake, but as a lack of preparation and understanding, and shift some of the blame to the coaching staff as well. The thing with Rodgers is that he is a special teamer and returned some punts for the Colts, so it’s not like this is new territory for him with the Eagles. He’s not a rookie. He should know what’s legal and what’s not. If he came out and said, “I just had a brain fart and forgot about the rule,” that’s one thing, but he straight up told reporters that he thought he was making some savvy veteran play, which was, in fact, illegal.

Rodgers, you’ll recall, was suspended for gambling last year, so when you hear a quote like this, it doesn’t assuage the portion of the fan base that already thinks the guy is dumber than a box of rocks. To his credit, Rodgers came back with a blocked extra point that Kelee Ringo ran back for two points, which cut a 16-point lead to 14 and helped keep the Eagles in the game. But the fumble was a backbreaker and put them in a deep hole, down three scores with three quarters left to play.