Sam Darnold will close out his second season as Jets quarterback with games against two tough defenses.
These will be Darnold’s last chances to show signs of his growth as a quarterback in Year 2. Last week against the Ravens, he had some good moments — and one really bad one.
Darnold’s best throw of the game was a touchdown pass to Jamison Crowder in the second quarter. Darnold rifled the ball to Crowder, who was covered tightly by Marlon Humphrey. But Darnold noticed Humphrey had his back to him and fit the pass in.
“I knew rolling out, I saw everyone pretty much covered, so I was just going to try to roll out, buy myself some time, see if anyone could get open and noticed the defender’s back was turned to me,” Darnold said. “I knew there was a chance when I saw that, so I just tried to give Jamison the best chance to catch it.”
When asked about what that throw showed him, offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said: “That mom, dad and God gave him a lot of gifts.”
Darnold had a bad interception at the end of the first half. He has cut down on turnovers recently, but also lost a fumble against the Ravens.
“I think whenever you throw an interception, especially during the course of the game it’s frustrating,” Darnold said, “but you always have to have a next-play mentality and that’s really part of the tough thing about quarterback is being able to bounce back from a bad play. I feel like I’ve being doing a good job of being able to bounce back. But hopefully those plays, like I’ve been saying, hopefully I can eliminate some of those critical errors that have been made in some of those games.”
Darnold was asked how backup quarterback David Fales felt about Darnold saying he always had a “weird” look on his face when he was asked about the viral sideline video from last week.
“No comment,” Darnold said with a laugh.
WR Robby Anderson was sent home and did not practice due to an illness. RG Tom Compton (calf) and WR Demaryius Thomas (hamstring/knee) did not practice. … S Jamal Adams (calf), RB Bilal Powell (ankle), CB Brian Poole (concussion), CB Arthur Maulet (calf) and DL Quinnen Williams (neck) were all limited in practice. … The Jets signed WR Josh Malone off of the practice squad.
