The Brewing QB1 Controversy

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allday1991
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Re: The Brewing QB1 Controversy

Post by allday1991 »

Cliff wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 10:02 am
VikingLord wrote: Mon Oct 21, 2024 9:29 am After watching Darnold's latest performance against the Lions, I'm going to call it right now and predict there will NOT be a future QB controversy and that, when this season ends somewhat unceremoniously with a .500 or so record, the Vikings will at best offer to bring Darnold back as McCarthy's backup next season. I say this because it seems pretty obvious that Darnold is not playing the position at a high level. He may have started out on fire (which he's done before with his previous teams), but he seems incapable of maintaining it and again yesterday we saw numerous examples of him missing obvious and fairly easy throws while at the same time making yet another equally obvious and glaring error. The first obvious miss that I saw was when he took off scrambling for what appeared to be a very nice 19 yard pickup. However, the downfield replay of that scramble showed that had Darnold simply stepped up in the pocket and looked straight ahead, Nailor was wide open down the middle for an easy TD. And by easy, I mean E-A-S-Y, as he had clean separation and multiple steps. Darnold just "Dobbed" it and took off. Second obvious miss was on the INT to Branch. Jones was running a sideline route and was as wide open as anyone can get. It would have been an easy pitch-and-catch for a first down to keep the chains moving. But Darnold never looked that way, instead locking on to Addison who never was open. And even worse, Branch was right there. Darnold credited Branch with making a nice play on the ball in the post game pressure. Dude, you threw it right to him! He didn't have to do anything, and this isn't the first time I've seen Darnold make the same kind of throw.

Whatever poise and pocket presence Darnold had to start the year is gone. He's jumpy, impatient, is missing throws and failing to see receivers coming open. Early in the year he was hitting some deep balls and putting a lot of scoring pressure on opposing teams. Now, we're lucky if we see one ball go downfield per game. And it's really hurting the offense.

So I think it is safe to say that the Vikings at least will be saved from any difficult decisions at QB1 heading into next season. It's going to be JMac or bust.
I'm not sure we watched the same game. Darnold completed 81.5% of his passes for 259 yards, 1/1 td/int, a 103.5 passer rating, and 40 yards on the ground. After 7 games he is 7th in passer rating even after the Jets game. The Jets, by the way, have 3 of the top 15 CBs in the league.

He didn't seem jumpy at all to me. The play on the ball for the INT was a good play by a very good player.

He wasn't perfect, but his play was more than good enough to win the game if the defense held up. The defense gave up 4 TDs on 4 consecutive drives. They're lucky the game was as close as it was.
I strongly disagree with Darnold having a good game, the stats are ok but don’t tell the whole story. On the pick play Jones was wide open and he missed him and on our final 3rd down on offence he missed Justin Jefferson. Make those plays and we win 🤷‍♂️. Switch Goff with Darnold and Vikings win that game by 20 points.
“I remember my mistakes more than my success.” - Adrian Peterson