Tag: Sam Darnold

Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones offer hope for the future of New York football

Both Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones showed everyone how they can be the next franchise quarterbacks in New York.

The future shined a little brighter for the Jets and Giants on Sunday.

It’s hard to see positives amid such a disappointing season for the Jets and the Giants, but Sam Darnold and Daniel Jones both showed their abilities to play competitive games. Darnold displayed all of his athletic mobility without any of his signature turnovers to throw for 230 yards and two scores on his way to the win, while Jones found holes in the Jets defense to finish with 303 passing yards with four touchdowns. 

Neither the Jets nor the Giants fielded even a remotely good pass defense, so this game won’t paint a perfect picture of either Darnold’s or Jones’ potential. But there were enough bright spots from both quarterbacks to give New York fans a glimmer of hope once the rest of the roster is fixed.

Darnold needed to have a good game after a horrendous three-game stretch, and he finished with his first turnover-less game since Week 1. He was in much better command of the offense and looked every bit as good a quarterback as he could be.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Darnold’s game – and the one that’s gotten him into trouble with turnovers as well – is his ability to go off-script and find his receivers by extending plays with his legs outside the pocket. Recently, those plays have resulted in costly turnovers for the Jets. But against the Giants, Darnold played mistake-free and led three touchdown drives by making throws you only see from the best.

Darnold didn’t back down from adversity and consistently poor pass blocking. He rebounded and didn’t change his game despite a month-stretch of mistake-ridden play.

Jones, meanwhile, went toe-to-toe with Darnold and matched him almost point-for-point most of the afternoon. He hit Darius Slayton on two second-quarter touchdowns to draw within one point and then found Golden Tate on back-to-back touchdown drives to take the lead. Jones continues to improve every week for the Giants and seemingly always finds ways to make the big play. Sunday’s loss was Jones’ second game with at least 300 passing yards and four total touchdowns.

Jones played well but also fumbled the ball three times – one of which resulted in Jamal Adams’ incredible strip-sack touchdown. He’s shown the ability to be the Giants’ franchise quarterback but, like all young quarterbacks, needs to hold onto the ball. Coincidentally, Darnold has the same problem for the Jets and has looked atrocious at times with inexcusable mistakes. Darnold corrected a lot of problems from the past three weeks to finish the game with a clean sheet – Jones just needs to do the same. 

Again, this isn’t a final judgment call on the abilities of Darnold and Jones. They bother played against very weak defenses. But even against bad teams, they performed well enough to give hope in a city that hasn’t seen much in recent years when it comes to competent quarterback play. Both quarterbacks obviously still have issues, primarily when it comes to holding onto the football. But this first duel between Darnold and Jones could signal a shift in New York football, one that could feature two long-term solutions at quarterback if each team learns from the mistakes of its past to build a solid roster around the two.

4 interesting stats from Jets’ Week 10 win over Giants

The Jets won their second game of the season by defeating their roommates 34-27 in a battle of young quarterbacks in the area.

The Jets weren’t perfect Sunday, but they came from behind and beat the Giants, 34-27.

After three consecutive weeks of losing, Sam Darnold turned in his best performance since the Dallas game, throwing no interceptions on the day. Jamal Adams had one of the best games of his young career, while the defense made big stops when it needed to, especially in the trenches.

Let’s take a look at some interesting stats from Gang Green’s second win of the season.

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Sam Darnold thinks Jets still have a shot at playoffs

After defeating the Giants, 34-27, Sam Darnold was feeling good about where the Jets could end up by the end of the season.

After defeating the Giants, 34-27, Sam Darnold was feeling good about where the Jets could end up by the end of the season.

The Jets played one of their cleaner games of the season both offensively and defensively, but it was far from a complete performance. Some of the same issues that have doomed the Jets this season, such as offensive line play, penalties and cornerback coverage, were still a problem. But that didn’t stop Darnold from talking about the playoffs after the game.

“We need every win from now on,” Darnold told reporters. “We’ve still got a chance. I mean, if we got on a roll here and win out, we’ve got a chance at the playoffs. Guys in this locker room know this. We know that and we’re really excited to get back to work.”

It’s great that Darnold still has confidence in his team, but it’s hard to imagine Gang Green making a playoff run. The Jets are second to last in the AFC with eight teams in front of them for the final playoff spot. The Steelers hold that spot with a record of 5-4, so the Jets are three games back of them.

Looking at the Jets’ remaining schedule, there are only three opponents that they could be favored to beat: the Redskins, Bengals and Dolphins. Other than that, their schedule doesn’t give any reason for hope. The other four games are against the Raiders, Bills, Steelers and Ravens. All of those teams are either in the playoff hunt or are currently a playoff team.

The Jets also have a ton of work to do despite winning on Sunday. The offense didn’t have much life to it after the first two drives, while the offensive line couldn’t open up any holes for Le’Veon Bell. As for the defense, the cornerback situation is dreadful. They have nobody who can cover. Also, the inside linebackers are completely depleted thanks to injuries.

So while this win on Sunday was much needed for the Jets, there’s no reason to believe this team is going anywhere this season. What else is Darnold supposed to say, though?