Re-evaluating Sam's Super Bowl

[bileever]

I re-watched the game this weekend, and I thought Sam Darnold played a really good game. He escaped pressure and bought himself more time (he was pressured 14 times), he took what he was given, and he made some excellent throws. Were it not for some great defensive plays, he would have had a more impressive stat line. But do you know who it is that throws for 300 yards? It's usually the losing QB.

I heard a lot of commentary about how Sam didn't have his best game or that the Seahawks won despite his performance. That's totally BS if you go back and watch the tape. That Patriots defense was good, and they schemed pretty well against JSN and the passing game. Against a team that intercepted CJ Stroud 4 times in the divisional round and had 15 postseason sacks, the one sack/zero turnover stat is pretty solid.

Here's a good breakdown of Sam's performance by Chase Daniels:

 

[Trackhawk]

Gonzalez absolutely was the MVP of the game. Without him it would have been a drubbing of XLVIII proportions with Darnold having an MVP stat line.

 

[Jac]

100% agree. That SB performance was the epitome of everything the narrative around Darnold indicated he wasn't capable of.

 

[Bobblehead]

I re-watched the game this weekend, and I thought Sam Darnold played a really good game. He escaped pressure and bought himself more time (he was pressured 14 times), he took what he was given, and he made some excellent throws. Were it not for some great defensive plays, he would have had a more impressive stat line. But do you know who it is that throws for 300 yards? It's usually the losing QB.

I heard a lot of commentary about how Sam didn't have his best game or that the Seahawks won despite his performance. That's totally BS if you go back and watch the tape. That Patriots defense was good, and they schemed pretty well against JSN and the passing game. Against a team that intercepted CJ Stroud 4 times in the divisional round and had 15 postseason sacks, the one sack/zero turnover stat is pretty solid.

Here's a good breakdown of Sam's performance by Chase Daniels:

I thought he was adequate. I thought he got away several times when he didn't lead the receivers enough and then other times led them to much.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

Without watching the clip, what I thought was he handled pressure and avoided sacks. He also made the right reads. He missed a couple of throws that would have blown the game wide open even earlier.

 

[pittpnthrs]

I think MM had a talk with him after the first series. He was forcing and throwing into some very tight windows.

 

[Shane Falco]

Darnold was under a ton of pressure for most of the game. He did pretty well dealing with it. Unlike their guy who seemed like a statue when the pressure came. And here the biggest worry for me going into that game was Maye's running ability.

 

[Mick063]

Field Goals are not recorded as touchdown passes, but Sam reliably got the team into scoring position. Those 17 points from Jason Myers didn't just appear out of thin air.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Not his best game, but he played smart. He missed a few throws, but he was also being rushed a LOT in that game. He easily escaped 4 or 5 sacks. Gonzales made a couple amazing plays. Meh, they got a garbage time TD. That game isn't even remotely close to how much the Hawks dominated.
Pats had 79 yards and zero points thru 3 quarters. We won, guaranteed that's all he cared about. He said himself that he didn't have his best game.

However, he flat out DID against the Rams, best game of his entire career, imo. Dude hasn't had a turnover in several weeks.

 

[kidhawk]

Field Goals are not recorded as touchdown passes, but Sam reliably got the team into scoring position. Those 17 points from Jason Myers didn't just appear out of thin air.

Just a little nitpick. One TD was defensive so it was only 16 of his points created by the offense

 

[Jac]

Not his best game, but he played smart. He missed a few throws, but he was also being rushed a LOT in that game. He easily escaped 4 or 5 sacks. Gonzales made a couple amazing plays. Meh, they got a garbage time TD. That game isn't even remotely close to how much the Hawks dominated.
Pats had 78 yards and zero points thru 3 quarters. We won, guaranteed that's all he cared about. He said himself that he didn't have his best game.

However, he flat out DID against the Rams, best game of his entire career, imo. Dude hasn't had a turnover in several weeks.

What gets lost is it seems most QBs miss throws in the SB because of the pressure/stage. You always hear commentary in the SB like "he'll settle down after the first quarter". This was the type of game/moment he was supposedly destined to fail in. To your point, the NFC Championship as well since he pretty much put the team on his back that game. Now that he's successfully dealt with the pressure of this SB run, he has the opportunity to be even better next year. He's learned how to manage a game, while stepping on the gas when needed.

 

[James in PA]

If he would have had one more half second to set his feet on that first quarter JSN overthrow (which would have been a walk-in TD), the dam would have broken a lot sooner than it did. New England's defense was solid. That first completion to Barner scared the crap out of me.

 

[Torc]

I think MM had a talk with him after the first series. He was forcing and throwing into some very tight windows.

I think Kubiak adjusted after the first series after it became apparent the Patriots were selling out to try to force Darnold into a mistake. Kubiak refused to play that game and took what the defense was giving. Sam followed the game plan as it was adjusted. That may sound like a diss of Sam. It is not - he did exactly what he needed to do.

 

[SocialParasite]

Defense really dictated this game, for both teams. Seattle's D made it so, Sam didn't have to play the game of his life, but NE's D made it to where Darnold had to make smart decisions and throw the ball away, in order to prevent sacks & turnovers.

That's what I appreciate about Darnold, he's clearly shown that he's learned a lot in his 8 seasons. He doesn't care about padding his stats, and he doesn't let bad plays get in his head. The dude's a smart player, and I'll take smart players over stat-padding players every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

 

[HawkRiderFan]

Speaking of the first throw to Barner being scary, that's one thing about those early throws that annoyed me. Because it was Sam Darnold, the narrative was that those passes were close to being picked off etc. and he's "lucky" If those same throws are being made by Stafford, Allen, Mahomes they are being praised for threading the needle.

 

[Nosferatu]

Two things that are true: (1) Gonzalez was insane. He played an amazing game and wish he were on the Seahawks. (2) Darnold played exactly as he should have which is "don't lose the game".

 

[EverydayImRusselin]

He did very well considering the pats game plan, but it did feel like early on, a lot of his throws were just a little behind the receivers instead of leading them. Most of Gonzalez' plays were from this. If Sam leads those receivers, Gonzalez wouldn't be getting the credit he did.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

What gets lost is it seems most QBs miss throws in the SB because of the pressure/stage. You always hear commentary in the SB like "he'll settle down after the first quarter". This was the type of game/moment he was supposedly destined to fail in. To your point, the NFC Championship as well since he pretty much put the team on his back that game. Now that he's successfully dealt with the pressure of this SB run, he has the opportunity to be even better next year. He's learned how to manage a game, while stepping on the gas when needed.

No doubt. Coaching truly matters. They have done one hell of a job getting the best out of him.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

Defense really dictated this game, for both teams. Seattle's D made it so, Sam didn't have to play the game of his life, but NE's D made it to where Darnold had to make smart decisions and throw the ball away, in order to prevent sacks & turnovers.

That's what I appreciate about Darnold, he's clearly shown that he's learned a lot in his 8 seasons. He doesn't care about padding his stats, and he doesn't let bad plays get in his head. The dude's a smart player, and I'll take smart players over stat-padding players every day of the week, and twice on Sundays.

Yep, we just got rid of a guy last year who seemed to care more about stats than anything.

 

[chris98251]

Vrable and that defense had said we will make Darnold turn the ball over ala the Rams, I think Sam took it persoannly and tried to throw the ball into coverage that wasn't as open as he would normally throw into, also they were jumping every route that first couple of series. Luck, yeah a bit, also our receivers fight to make the catches or turning defender also. They changed it up to more K9 and others guys after and when we got the couple of FG's they backed off a bit as well after the near miss deep passes.