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Let’s be honest . . .
As I tried to say all spring and summer, Sam Darnold is still a work-in-progress, and the hype from some in the media, and the team’s social media department, was out of hand, and not fair to the player.
He still has a lot of work to do in terms of reading defenses and seeing the field better.
Terrific prospect, but in his second offense in two years, and is only 22, he has a lot room to grow . . .
Robby Anderson had just three catches for 23 yards. The Bills do have a very good #1 cornerback in Tre White, but also some plays were left on the field, like on the first series of the second half, when Darnold short-armed a deep out on the left side to Anderson who was open, and then on the next play, Darnold missed a wide open Anderson on a crossing route . . .
Darnold had five passes tipped at the line today. What leads to that? Two things come to mind. First off he has a winding throwing motion, so when he aims the ball in a certain direction to pull the trigger, the ball doesn’t come out immediately due to the wind-up, so this allows linemen to time their jump. Secondly, he was telegraphing a lot passes, only looking one place, so that signaled defensive linemen to wear the ball is going . . .
As I wrote over and over this spring and summer, Darryl Roberts is a good fourth or fifth-corner, but doesn’t have starter qualities. He had a very rough game today.
He got beat by WR John Brown on the game-winning TD, not showing the best awareness of where the ball was.
Late in the third quarter, the Bills got in field goal range, on an 11-yard pass from Allen to Brown on the left side for 11-yards to the 23-yard-line, and two plays later they kicked a 43-yard field goal. Once again, not great awareness.
Late in the first quarter Marcus Maye had a pick, but it was overturned due to a holding call on Roberts away from the pick.
Not a starter. Not sure why people in the building, old and new, felt this way about the player . . .
I know some might consider it coach-speak, but Adam Gase made a point I agree with after the game about the Jets’ offense vs. the Bills’ defense. A unit thinking too much in a new system (Jets offense) against a unit well-versed in their system (Bills defense).
“Those guys being in Sean’s (McDermott) system for the last three years, they are playing without thinking. Right now, I think we are thinking too much,” Gase said.
I am not making excuses. I consider this quote a fact. The Bills have a defense loaded with veterans, many entering their third season in McDermott’s system, and the Jets were in their first game in a new offense, and it showed . . .
The Jets new GM made a couple of dubious moves before the opener that hurt the Jets today.
First off, the placekicker. Why would you sign a young kicker with no real game experience who had a rough preseason to replace a young kicker with no game experience who had a rough preseason? That is what the GM did going from Taylor Bertolet to Kaare Vedvic. Lateral move. They should have signed a veteran with game experience.
Second point, why did they release veteran inside linebacker James Burgess, who had a terrific summer, to sign 33-year-old linebacker Albert McCellan, who is known for his special teams work? Don’t you think Burgess would have come in handy today after C.J. Mosley got hurt. Burgess is very instinctive, and plus he played for Gregg Williams in Cleveland, so he arrived in Florham Park knowing the system.
Two moves that were head-scratchers.
September 8, 2019
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