Sam Darnold Thoughts After Game 1

[TheCasillas]

1 minute ago, mav1234 said:

did we even hear why Arnold quit on the route? Was it zone vs man read that he or Sam messed up?

from what I saw in the stands, it appeared Arnold just slowed up. It was so odd because he was crossing the face of the LB in zone coverage and slowed in front of him.

[mav1234]

1 minute ago, TheCasillas said:

from what I saw in the stands, it appeared Arnold just slowed up. It was so odd because he was crossing the face of the LB in zone coverage and slowed in front of him.

I wondered if he was trying to sit in a soft spot in the zone. It was clear from the broadcast Darnold expected a different decision there.  Really unfortunate too, I think if he continues his route its a big gain.

Edited September 12, 2021 by mav1234

[Jackie Lee]

2 minutes ago, mav1234 said:

did we even hear why Arnold quit on the route? Was it zone vs man read that he or Sam messed up?

Dunno be wasn't getting any YAC today, chemistry seems off compared to all the training camp hype about him. Sam was throwing him open and Arnold looked like he thought he was supposed to sit. I want more Tremble already

[TheCasillas]

Just now, mav1234 said:

I wondered if he was trying to sit in a soft spot in the zone. It was clear from the broadcast Darnold expected a different decision there.  Really unfortunate too, I think if he continues his route its a big gain.

Same thing happened with Robby coming out of the half as well... Robby broke outside when the corner gave him the inside. Sam ended up dirting the football bc of the decision. 

[Panthera onca]

42 minutes ago, OldhamA said:

I mean it was a 45 yard off platform throw, but ok. 

Linville just doesn’t want to admit that Sam is a good QB  and it was a smart/correct move to trade for him.

[OldhamA]

11 minutes ago, AU-panther said:

how many of them resulted in 1st downs?

was he throwing short of the sticks?

 

A lot of this offence is about YAC. I imagine quite a few of those conversions were thrown short of the sticks - I know Moore had one that was a screen play. McCaffrey will have had a dump off that he carried beyond the sticks too.

[mav1234]

1 minute ago, TheCasillas said:

Same thing happened with Robby coming out of the half as well... Robby broke outside when the corner gave him the inside. Sam ended up dirting the football bc of the decision. 

these are the kind of things I think we'll see improve over the season... this is just getting on the same page.

[OldhamA]

7 minutes ago, mav1234 said:

not sure anyone is suggesting we pay him $30m a year yet (may have missed that).

but it is worth noting that at least 2 of those were drops, and a couple overthrows.  they can clean both those up.

if he can get a couple more seconds out of the OL I expect we could see better work deep.  I'm not saying he is a complete product but I think today was promising at least.

He wasn't the unmitigated disaster some fans were hoping for so they're picking apart anything they can to save face. 

[Floppin]

I was very happy with Darnold's play.

Yes he missed a few throws, but so does every QB. He was largely very accurate. Misses tend to stick out when they are in the redzone and unfortunately a few of his were. 

I feel like our offensive play calling left a decent amount to be desired. We did a reasonably good job scheming around our interior line deficiencies but when we decided to go conservative (which I HATE, just fuging keep the pedal to the metal) we didn't call plays appropriately and we just stalled completely. 

The main positives that I took away from watching Darnold's play today were his movement within the pocket and his overall command of the offense. He was a little bouncy for my taste but he seemed very poised and stood tall in the pocket while moving within it fairly comfortably. He also showed a strong knowledge of the plays and where his receivers and outlets were going to be. He was able to recognize pressure and immediately throw to a spot that he knew a receiver was going to be on multiple occasions. He was able to do this with accuracy and without panic, which is a very positive sign. I remember one play in particular, he sees the pressure up the middle and immediately spins and flicks a dump-off to Hubbard almost by muscle memory.

[AU-panther]

3 minutes ago, TheCasillas said:

3 of those were on the skills players. 

Dan Arnold (stopped on his route for some reason)
DJ Moore
TMJ (OPI play)

If we want to be accurate.

 

2 minutes ago, mav1234 said:

not sure anyone is suggesting we pay him $30m a year yet (may have missed that).

but it is worth noting that at least 2 of those were drops, and a couple overthrows.  they can clean both those up.

if he can get a couple more seconds out of the OL I expect we could see better work deep.  I'm not saying he is a complete product but I think today was promising at least.

everyone has some dropped and bad routes.  You have to ask yourself how he played relative to other players.  Did he do stuff today better than average QBs would have done?  Would "élite" QBs have done better?

Tyrod Taylor 6/12 on 10+ yards

Tyrod Taylor Week 1 Passing Chart | NFL Next Gen Stats

I'm not saying Sam played terrible, my point is you have to look past the stat line when evaluating a QB, and yes, this year is a basically a $30+ million dollar a year audition for Sam.  The team is trying to find a franchise QB, personally I'm not convinced this week tells us much.

 

[Jackie Lee]

2 minutes ago, OldhamA said:

A lot of this offence is about YAC. I imagine quite a few of those conversions were thrown short of the sticks - I know Moore had one that was a screen play. McCaffrey will have had a dump off that he carried beyond the sticks too.

Arnold went out of bounds on one instead of reaching one yard ahead for a first down. Maybe to stop the clock but there was over a minute on the clock and three time outs left, some confusing decisions from him today. 

[TheCasillas]

1 minute ago, AU-panther said:

 

You have to ask yourself how he played relative to other players.  Did he do stuff today better than average QBs would have done? 

 

Yes.

[AU-panther]

4 minutes ago, OldhamA said:

He wasn't the unmitigated disaster some fans were hoping for so they're picking apart anything they can to save face. 

or some fans can evaluate what they see and just not look at stat lines.

 

[mav1234]

Just now, AU-panther said:

 

everyone has some dropped and bad routes.  You have to ask yourself how he played relative to other players.  Did he do stuff today better than average QBs would have done?  Would "élite" QBs have done better?

Tyrod Taylor 6/12 on 10+ yards

Tyrod Taylor Week 1 Passing Chart | NFL Next Gen Stats

I'm not saying Sam played terrible, my point is you have to look past the stat line when evaluating a QB, and yes, this year is a basically a $30+ million dollar a year audition for Sam.  The team is trying to find a franchise QB, personally I'm not convinced this week tells us much.

 

Tyrod Taylor had the best game of his career, lol.  I mean, good for him, legit I think that is great.  But this is a full year audition.  Nobody was saying Taylor was broken, busted, destroyed, etc., like we have worried about Darnold.

The key part of Darnold's play was that he played within the offense and limited mistakes IMO.  He obviously needs to improve if anyone is going to give him $30M lol.