Sam Darnold continues to look deserving of all the Jets’ hope
ATLANTA — Yep. The dateline isn’t fake. And it isn’t from out in the suburbs, where the Mets salvaged one from the Braves. This is preseason football, and this devil went down to Georgia not looking for a soul to steal, but for a future to blossom.
Because Sam Darnold is also here.
This is what a quarterback like Darnold brings to a team: eyeballs and interest — even in the middle of August, when it’s still hard to conjure football season. Even here, in Georgia, where football is supposed to be both king and court, there were only a smattering of fans inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
Makes sense. The Falcons have Matt Ryan, so they already have a franchise quarterback, one who dragged them heartbreakingly close to the Lombardi Trophy not so long ago. The Jets hope that’s what they have in Darnold. They have gambled most of their franchise on it, so much of their future.
So here we are. And for the second straight game, Darnold looked splendid on the first drive of the game. A week ago against the Giants, after nearly having his first pitch of summer intercepted, Darnold marched the Jets effortlessly to a touchdown.
Same thing here. Bing, bang, zip, zoop, eight plays, 68 yards, Darnold completing three out of four — and the one he missed should, by rights, have been a 12-yard touchdown to Quincy Enunwa, a gorgeous pass right on Enunwa’s fingertips in the back corner of the end zone. The TD came on a 1-yard run by Ty Montgomery.
(Luckily, we do not travel to Atlanta to see Le’Veon Bell, because Bell spent the game in his civvies.)
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ATLANTA — A few of the Jets’ problem areas looked…
This week’s Jets kicker, Taylor Bertolet, looked much like last week’s Jets kicker, Chandler Catanzaro, and missed the extra point, then another one later on. And that, essentially, was that. Darnold played two more series. The Jets got one more first down. Coach Adam Gase didn’t put all that much on film, and Darnold escaped unscathed, and that made it a good night all around.
To the delight and dismay of exactly nobody, the Jets won the game, 22-10.
“Sam did a great job,” Gase said. “Most of our guys did. It’s good to see guys doing exactly what we’ve worked on since spring, see it come to life on the field.”
Said Darnold himself: “There’s so many different things we can do with this offense. We can build off this.”
And … well, we’d all better get used to the fact that you’re going to see Sam Darnold’s name in the newspaper a lot. His name has already been in the papers a lot — he did start from Game 1 last year after all — but now he is not a curiosity. Now, the training wheels are off. Now, instead of using “Darnold” and “franchise quarterback” in the same paragraph, they are in the same sentence.
And when that happens …
Well, put it this way. In Eli Manning’s second year in the NFL, his first as the Giants’ starting quarterback, his name appeared in this newspaper 537 times from Aug. 1-Jan. 15. By comparison, Tiki Barber — the team’s best offensive player — was mentioned 334 times. Michael Strahan — a member of that team bound for the Hall of Fame — was in there 321 times.
It’s a quarterback’s world. We just live in it.
Why, since we’re in Atlanta, I thought I’d dust off this cheery memory from back in 2013, back when the Falcons still played in the Georgia Dome, on a prime-time night when … well, read it for yourself. Try not to let it take your breath away:
… the rookie quarterback, Geno Smith, took a dozen giant leaps forward, leading the Jets fearlessly, and meticulously, with a confidence belying his years, setting the Jets up for the game-winning field goal and setting himself up, quite possibly, for an extended ride as New York football’s toast of the town …
Yeah. The Pulitzer committee sent that one back, C.O.D.
And, look, we all know none of this truly matters, that nothing will truly matter for another 3 ½ weeks, until they take the field at MetLife Stadium and the Buffalo Bills are staring at them from across the field and the next chapter of Sam Darnold’s career can truly begin to unfold.
So this devil went down to Georgia. Once upon a time, this was the ride Eli Manning took everyone on. It was time well spent. It was smart getting in on that ground floor.
Will it be this time around?
That’s why we’re here.
