New York Jets: Sam Darnold and the Offense Sputters in Week 1 Loss at the Buffalo Bills
Sam Darnold’s ascension to the NFL elite in his third year took a detour. The New York Jets quarterback may have even regressed as he struggled in the Jets season-opening loss to the Buffalo Bills 27-17. For all the work that was put in both in and out of the team’s facility this offseason, Darnold made some questionable decisions and some key mistakes in the first contest of the season.
“First off, we didn't execute the way that we wanted to, especially in the first half. I put that on my shoulders,” Darnold said in a virtual press conference after the game. “I missed way too many throws today. We had opportunities and I just missed guys and we got to look at the tape and see what happened, but I just flat out missed guys and that's on me. I gotta be better.”
Darnold finished the day 21-of-35 for 215 yards with one touchdown and an interception. His longest play of the day was a 69-yard touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder in the third quarter. That was a screen pass to Crowder who then broke free.
“We’ve got to execute better,” Darnold said. “It's as simple as that. Now we have to go into the meetings tomorrow and understand how we need to fix those things and make sure that because they're fixable.”
The offensive line was rebuilt this offseason with four new starters and the early review was not great. Darnold was sacked three times and pressured 16 times. The Jets managed only 52 rushing yards on just 15 carries. Le’Veon Bell left with a hamstring injury and did not return.
“It's the first game of the season,” Darnold said. “We just got to go in with our heads up and be ready to learn from our mistakes and leave it at that.”
Darnold made two key mistakes. First, in the second quarter, he was sacked by Trent Murphy of the Bills when he had the opportunity to throw the ball away. Two plays later, he threw a bad interception to Matt Milano of the Bills at midfield.
“The interception was just a bad play,” Darnold explained. “Just try to fit a ball in there that I shouldn't have. And then the sack that I took was another kind of what I said before. It's just a bad play. It's, unexcusable, there's no excuse for it. I gotta be better. I was kinda waiting and I obviously waited too long for someone to get open and it was just a bad decision.”
“When we had opportunities to make plays we didn’t make them,” head coach Adam Gase said after the game. “I felt like the (offensive) line gave us enough time. We were not good in the passing game today.”
Both Gase and Darnold seemed deflated after the game. Darnold lacked the confident look he had displayed often during training camp. He said that Buffalo gave them different looks but nothing they weren’t ready for against the Bills. They just didn’t execute.
“We're all competitors you know,” Darnold said. “Losing sucks no matter who it is. Obviously, it's Week 1. There's some details that we gotta figure out and we're going to figure out. It's week one and we just got to figure out what we did wrong and correct those mistakes and not let them happen again.”
