NFL analyst shares perfect comparison for Sam Darnold's brilliant game vs. Bucs

Your last impression of a thing can easily throw off your entire analysis. That was certainly the case last season for Sam Darnold, who balled out the entire year up until he bombed Minnesota's regular season finale and their Wild Card game, which was his first career playoff start.

The same thing seems to be playing out for many observers of Darnold this year. In Week 1 Darnold played a very clean game and helped keep the Seahawks competitive in a brutal defensive slugfest. However, because he lost a fumble on the last possession that's all that many analysts took away.

Darnold was also incredible in Sunday's loss to Tampa, but his unlucky interception that set up the Bucs' game-winning field goal is overshadowing the rest of his work to a lot of observers.

Ian Hartitz hit the nail on the head when he called this dynamic a Tony Romo special.

Sam Darnold with the prime Tony Romo special: Lights out football for 59 minutes before an unfortunate late INT becomes the story instead of your defense giving up 38 points
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) October 5, 2025

The Darnold-Baker Mayfield shootout reminded a lot of fans of the epic game between Romo's Cowboys and Peyton Manning's Broncos in his first year with that team. Denver went on to win 51-48, and even though Romo threw five touchdowns his late interception had many people blaming him for the loss rather the Dallas defense that gave up a 50-burger.

While it wasn't quite that extreme, Seattle's defense is definitely the primary reason why they lost yesterday's game. Without an utterly brilliant outing from Darnold the Seahawks wouldn't have been even close to being in position for that potential game-winning drive.

The truth s a whole lot of quarterbacks would have cracked under the pressure the 49ers defense played with in the season opener, and very few could match Mayfield the way he was throwing the ball yesterday.

The prevailing narrative around Romo was fundamentally flawed - and not just because of that one game. He developed a reputation for choking in big games even though his fourth quarter numbers were vastly superior to his peers, even those of Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

Hopefully Darnold won't suffer the same fate and people will start to recognize the remarkable work he's been doing for this team.

Mar 3, 2018; Durham, NC, USA; Former Dallas Cowboy Tony Romo awaits the start of a game between the Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels at Cameron Indoor Stadium. | Rob Kinnan-Imagn Images

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