Film Study: A number of factors
Why did Sam Darnold struggle vs. the Jets? Well, there were a lot of things at play
By Matthew Coller
Before we dive into Sam Darnold’s performance against the New York Jets, let’s all take a moment to remember that they are 5-0 and Darnold has the fifth highest QB rating in the NFL. They couldn’t have asked for a better start to his career in purple, even with a couple stumbling blocks over the last few weeks.
That said, there is a lot to take away from his game against the Jets. So let’s have a look at some plays that went right, some plays that were thrown off by the defense and some plays that had questionable decisions or timing and look into whether these things can be solved going forward….
Play-action success
We begin with several play-action plays that clicked well from all sides — play design, Darnold’s execution and the receivers’ routes. On the opening drive, where Darnold threw a line drive completion to Justin Jefferson to get things going. Jefferson and Jordan Addison lined up on the same side of the field inside the numbers, giving them space on the outside to have a two-way go. They each ran vertical routes, but Jefferson broke his off across the middle behind the linebackers. Darnold dropped back, got good protection, hitched and threw with anticipation right to the center of the NFL logo. Exactly how it’s drawn up.
There weren’t many “easy buckets” for Darnold in the game but the next play features a clever wrinkle to a bootleg in which Jordan Addison acts like he’s going to lazily block his defender and then snaps wide open on the outside. Had Darnold not had a defender coming at him, he would have ended up with Josh Oliver wide open over the middle of the field. Instead he made a smart play and a good enough throw to move the ball forward.
These are the type of plays that you would have liked to have seen more on Sunday. It moved Darnold away from pressure, got a receiver open on a short route and got the ball into a playmaker’s hands. If Addison breaks the tackle, he’s running for a long, long time. (We’ll get to the struggles with “easy buckets” soon.)
When using play-action on Sunday, Darnold averaged 7.4 yards per attempt and graded 68.5. Without play-action, 4.7 YPA and 37.6 PFF grade.
When the Vikings needed Darnold to come through late in the fourth quarter, he did so on another play-action throw. This time he released the ball in Johnny Mundt’s direction just as he was getting past the underneath defender, leading him right in front of the safety.
It wasn’t a flawless day for Darnold when he was kept clean. His overthrow interception nearly cost the Vikings but when he was not pressured the QB went 13-for-22 with 7.9 yards per attempt. When he was pressured, 1-for-9 with 0.6 YPA.
Let’s have a look at what the Jets did to bother him…
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Pressure and coverage
On the first drive, the Vikings were set up to either kick a fairly easy field goal or go for fourth down but instead Darnold took a sack that forced Will Reichard to boot a bomb in order to get them up 3-0. On a rollout to the right, the Jets sent their edge player straight up field rather than taking the bait with the reverse and he was instantly on Darnold. It seemed Darnold may have overestimated his speed, thinking he could out-run the defender rather than just dumping it down to Aaron Jones.
There has been a theme throughout Darnold’s career of him trying to do too much or extend plays that aren’t there. This would be a good example. There’s nobody else in the ballpark of Jones, so if he gets past No. 22, he might race for 10-15 more yards. If he gets tackled immediately, the Vikings are still in the same spot.
There were a number of plays that failed simply to the Jets’ cornerbacks being really good at football. On this play-action play, Darnold appears to do everything right. Drops back, climbs the pocket, throws with good enough timing for Addison to come back to the ball to make a play and the corner breaks it up as it’s arriving. Maybe you could argue that Addison could have attacked the ball a little bit more but credit goes to the defense here.
Same goes for several quick wins up front. O’Connell attempted a double slant, which we don’t see from the Vikings a ton, and Darnold’s throw was disrupted by interior pressure. He may have also rushed the decision because he was sensing the rush because Jalen Nailor was coming open over the middle when he instead decided to throw it into a tighter window to Jefferson.
These next two plays are more than just a little disruption. They are full-on play destroyers. A rare miss by Christian Darrisaw ruined a wide open crossing route for Nailor, who was shut out on the day. There wasn’t a thing that Darnold could do about this play. He made the right decision throwing the ball away.
Here’s another throwaway because of an immediate loss up front. The right guard allows the Jets’ defensive tackle to come flying through totally uncontested and again Darnold can only wing it out of bounds.
The Jets’ defense is good. After Sunday’s game, they rank fifth in the NFL in defensive Expected Points Added and they were coming off a game in which they only allowed 60 yards passing to the Broncos. They have tremendous talent at every level and there were more DOA plays than you would normally expect because of that.
Timing, decisions, play designs
Whether it was a result of the London Effect or the Jets’ pressure / coverage, Darnold had trouble pulling the trigger at times.
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