Remember that is to the great credit of Dante and Josh, and a cruel indictment of Gase. Not only didn't he make ANY adjustments for his OL, he never seemed to give Darnald any easy throws like slants or short crossers, or hooks. I don't think one game can screw up a good QB, but this one could come close.
Two thoughts I had, one before the game started - "why in the hell would you allow this QB to be miked up during this game?"
and one about midway through the 3rd quarter - "why in the hell don't you take Darnold out before he's ruined?"
Miked up? I couldn't believe it! Did the Jets really think he was going to do that well against the Pats?! That he wouldn't say something dumb? I thought (although it didn't happen, I guess) they were going to have to bleep out every word out of his mouth as he was going to be running for his life for most of the game. I feel like ESPN was giddy either way - either he has a great game and we hear all the cheer leading we can stomach, or it's a complete cluster-buster, and they get soundbites for years to come, which is exactly what happened. Adam Gase is a complete tool to allow that to happen, and not to see what could and would probably result. The Jets are supposedly "furious" that ESPN played the "seeing ghosts" clip. Well, who's fault is that?! Which leads me to...
Ken's point - that if you want this kid to have one shred of confidence left in his ability to be a pro, that you take him OUT of that game in the 3rd quarter. Blame it on his spleen. Blame it on the mono. Whatever. Don't leave him in there to make mistake, after crushing mistake, after crushing mistake. Word on Patriots 5th quarter was that he was at his locker in tears and saying things like, "I absolutely suck."
Good luck going forward Jests. You're going to need it.
And while I don't believe that "trash talk" or being overly confident against the Pats makes a huge difference, I DO think it makes the Patriots put a laser focus on you that might not have otherwise been there. Sometimes the Pats come out sloppy, or get sloppy when they are playing lesser competition. No such luck for the Jets last night. From the opening play they were on a mission, and stomping all over the Jets was it, on both sides of the ball.