Acceleration problem...2001 6cly

I have a 2001 F-150, 6 cyl, ext cab, 37,000 miles. A couple of days ago, I started to have problems with acceleration. It starts up fine and idles normally, but when I accelerate it will hesitate and start to make a “popping” sound from the engine compartment, at the same time as the sound I can feel whatever it is through the gas pedal. It will get up to speed and when I let up on the gas and settle on a constant speed it will run fine. It ran like this on the way to the hardware store, driving about 15 miles at speeds from 25 mph to 70 mph. When I came back out and started it, the check engine light came on, I drove back home, same thing. I thought it might be some bad gas, so I put in some gas treatment and went and topped off the tank with about 10 gallons of premium at a different gas station. I have driven it about 25 miles since and restarted it several times, but light is still on and same symptoms. I would appreciate any suggestions from the forum. Oh, I checked the gas mileage after the fillup and still getting normal mileage of 18mpg.

Thanks in advance………….

Sounds like you might have some sort of injector related problem. First step I would take would be to run some fuel injector cleaner through it. Then I would take it to some place like Auto Zone, they will check the engine code for free and give you some possible fixes.