Sam Darnold's Return Far From Ideal in New York Jets Loss to the Buffalo Bills
Sam Darnold returned as the New York Jets starting quarterback in Week 7. He might have wished he had sat this one out and returned another week.
After a promising start where the Jets scored on two of their first three drives, the unit stalled and then looked utterly inept. In Sunday’s 18-10 loss, the Jets managed only 17 first downs and just 190 yards of total offense.
Darnold had missed the previous two weeks with a shoulder injury suffered in Week 4.
The Jets were up 10-0 in the second quarter and then got outscored by six field goals to lose the game. It was a frustrating way to lose, especially after such a promising start where the offense moved the ball well on their first three drives.
“Yeah, when you look at it that way it’s tough, but for us we looked at the first half, I feel like we got in a really good rhythm, we can definitely build off of that. We’ve got to look at the second half and learn from it,” Darnold said after the game. “I know it’s not necessarily what people want to hear, but that’s just how it is. We’ve just got to continue to get better week after week and look ourselves in the mirror and figure out what we’re doing wrong and how we can get better.”
With the loss, the Jets are now 0-7 and 0-3 in the AFC East.
On Sunday, the Jets switched things up as offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains called the plays instead of head coach Adam Gase.
Darnold finished the game 12-of-23 for 120 yards with an interception. He was also sacked six times, part of 10 quarterback hits the Bills defense delivered.
The Jets offense struggled after their solid start. Darnold said it had nothing to do with his missing the last two weeks due to injury.
“No, no. It was great to get back out there, especially that first half, I felt like we got into a rhythm, obviously we’ve got to execute a little bit better, hopefully put some more points on the board,” Darnold said. “Yeah, I felt like besides the late second quarter turnover that I had, I felt like I played pretty well in that first half.”
