Film Study: What went WRONG for Sam Darnold despite the Minnesota Vikings beating the Jaguars

33 comments

1. I said to a lot of my friends who are vikings fans wait til the middle of the season for Darnold to regress. And I was correct

2. Good points. You can't run an offense, successfully, thru one WR1 (Jefferson). Fearful Darnold does not have the skills to read multiple routes.

3. 5:17 tell me this is not holding

4. I noticed on several plays that the check down is wide open…

5. You never have almost turnovers for Baker because that whole fikm

6. The second interception really hit the ground and should have been overturned, but Darnold also threw an ugly 4th pick that got called back due to penalty. As a Vikings fan I’m glad we won, but this is where having McCarthy healthy and ready to start if Darnold doesn’t improve his decision making would have been nice

7. KOC preaches having a “quiet mind and short memory” when sitting in the pocket as QB. It’s the reason Darnold is actually good this year. However yesterday that philosophy proved that there needs to be a balance.

8. Do Purdy next

9. So a few things.
   1. The Vikings are 7-2.
   2. There was no chance Darnold was going to continue to play at the level he was in the first few weeks.
   3. Darold still hasn’t played that many games. So mistakes will happen.
   4. Vikings – establish the damn run. A running game is a passing games best friend. You’ve got 3 quality backs.
   5. Darnold – just limit the turnovers in the red zone. At least get field goals. This shouldn’t be that hard of an adjustment.
   6. The Vikings are 7-2. Who expected that!!?? So the whole team, including Darnold, are at least meeting the highest expectations we could have had. So calm down people!!

10. His highs are very high, and his lows are very low. Honestly the offense was really moving the ball good this game, but Darnold kept trying to push the ball down the field too much.

11. Barely able to hang on? Bud they dominated the game throughout. The Jags had 60 yards of offence and 15 minutes time of possession in the last 70 minutes of the game. The Jags narrowly avoided a slaughter.

12. Couple of those plays everyone is covered and I give props to jags there. In the other hand, Darnold had 2 check downs on 1 play you showed and the Aaron jones route he threw to looked like Jets as a better option.

13. QB's with above average physical talent but horrible decision making ability: Jeff George, Sam Darnold. QB's with below average physical talent, but excellent decision making ability: Joe Montana, Tom Brady.

    So which QB's are better? I know who I'd take.

14. the viking don't have tall receiver for contested throw for Danorld style of letting the receiver win. Chargers used to draft ton of 6'4-5" guys for jump ball. Calvin johnson is 6'4" TEs are taller but they don't jump as well. Darnold needs to look at other wrs just run it more.

15. At USC Darnold would often go for the deep receiver when other guys were open. He connected on a surprising number of those throws. In the pros he has continued to have success downfield. What bothers me more is that he seems fixated on Jefferson.

16. Sam Darnold is a mediocre QB. Nothing wrong with that. I am below mediocre in almost every category.

17. Goff threw 5 ints last game and they barely beat the Texans who we throttled

18. 6:06 Aaron Jones for the TD.

19. He needs to calm down and just go through his reads. Check it down! Also, I think they need to use Aaron Jones more.

20. Can you make a video on Justin Herbert ?

21. A lot of his throws, especially the bad ones are just late. He’s also misses open receivers on his reads. It’s like he has his mind made up so he doesn’t even look at a read

22. Let's talk about the play calling….

23. Darnold is starting to feel the pressure of expectations. Nobody had any at the beginning of the season. He was a clear "stop-gap" with the QB of the future on the shelf. But he played lights-out to start the season. Then lights-out became the expecatation, and he's forcing some things now. He's still the best we have and it's not even close. Look at just about any QB who's not afraid to put it into tight spots and trust his receivers and they probably throw their share of picks. Brett Favre immediately comes to mind among others. Sam will continue to make great throws. And he will continue to throw picks. Hopefully not too many in the red zone.

24. I’m not worried I followed Sam’s career one thing is true he always plays better the second half of the season

25. Receivers didn’t get open. Still horrible decisions and throws by Darnold

26. He doesn't go through his progressions. He targets a receiver and ignores his other options and that is his biggest problem. It also looks like the plays have no spacing. Two and three Vikes are bunching in the area and that puts more problems on the QB to fit them in. Typical rent a QB Vikes

27. I actually like what they did here even tho the average jabroni will get scared and pout. This was the perfect game and time in the season to try to spread the ball around and take some chances to see where we are at and evaluate our depth. This game was treated as a practice. Yes, they almost lost. But, I think they were doing research and development on depth players to see what and who needs work for the final push in the playoffs. Keeping our star players healthy going into the playoffs and not treating every game like the SB is just plain smart. Don't believe me, here put on these rose colored glasses…

28. Sam is just staring down the WR on the his first endzone interception he throws. Forget the pass. Watch Sam's feet. He just sits there for 3 seconds bouncing & staring down a covered JJ instead of moving to his 2nd wide open Arron Jones on a short crosser and sure TD. waving his hands and crossing uncovered to a TD. KOC has to get Sam back to moving through progressions. KOC's recent mantra to Sam, that JJ is open even when he is covered is not sound and is causing problems. Vikings have JJ, Addison Hock and A Jones. Move through the progressions!

29. at 4:00 on that play darnold is about to get hit as he throws the ball. When you look at when he has to get rid of the ball due to pressure, no one is open. Addison is really the only one with a chance at catching a ball when he has to get rid of it and he almost throws him open. I dont know if you can call it a missed throw when he cant step into the throw and hes trying to throw someone open with a guy in his face.

30. It’s time to look inward, why are we expecting so much. He is what he has always been.

    I love the Vikings, but the fans are absolutely the dumbest fan base.

31. I think that one at 4:50 could have been a better throw but it seems like a D Lineman got to him seemingly cutting his follow through short. Might have been a factor.

32. I think Kevin O Connell told Darnold to test out throwing even when the target was covered, to work on doing this – while playing a bad team that the Vikings were probably going to beat anyway. What better way to test out some new stuff, a way to get Darnold used to throwing into coverage? The trouble was, Sam threw BEHIND the receiver in almost all instances. Whether that was because he banged his hand, or just misjudged it, we will never know. Kevin O Connell seemed very chill about the whole thing, however.

33. This whole week was very off for a lot of Quarterbacks. Shit, Jared Goff threw for 5 interceptions and he's been playing at an MVP level all season. There's always going to be a few weird games and hiccups along the way.