Another Sam Darnold milestone

[SoulfishHawk]

He forced it. Plus the play call was lame. Just run the damn ball. Other that play, I'm pretty happy with what I saw in the 2nd half. He was making much better decisions.

 

[themunn]

Disagree. When Sam is struggling against bottom-half teams, we need to run less - not more.


This was exactly what I wanted for Darnold. They did exactly what I wanted, dialed back the running.
This was an opponent that our D could hold in check.
Sam was making poor decisions, and that was affecting his accuracy. We needed him to gain confidence more than run the ball.
The problem with running the ball is that we have such inconsistent production from our RBs - running the ball hurts the QB, not helps him.
And Sam wasn't looking good. Making some questionable throws. Getting pressure on him repeatedly.

But we kept throwing the ball. And Sam is accurate when he isn't making bad throws. He started making throws, getting in rhythm and getting his confidence.
By the time he came out of the game, he was getting the ball out quickly and to the right target repeatedly. Now next game, he will have his confidence.

Also, the RB room is the weak link of this team. So when Darnold struggles, relying on the run hurts us even more. The better move is let Darnold play out of his funk. Which we did. This will pay dividends later.

As per Sports Illustrated:

After topping 100 yards rushing as a team just four times through the first eight weeks, Seattle has now accomplished that in five straight games after totalling 129 yards on the ground Sunday in their 37-9 win over the Atlanta Falcons. Over that span they're averaging 140.2 yards rushing per game.

If you extrapolated that out over the entire season, that would put the Seahawks third in the NFL behind only the Indianapolis Colts (averaging 157.5 yards per game) and the Chicago Bears (153.8).

 

[glenwo2]

If the QB throws a pass that hits the intended receiver in the hands and it’s deflected and picked off, to me, that’s not the same as a blatant pick where the QB throws a terrible pass that never had a chance to be received by the intended target in the first place.

There’s no coach protecting the QB here. This is a coach in this instance, merely speaking what he really means.

It was a catchable ball. It was deflected. Interception. Unfortunately in the NFL there are no asterisks next to interceptions for quarterbacks. Even when it’s not a bad pass, it still counts against them.

I hate picks like that. I’m fine if he had a terrible pick.As in, “Dude! What were you thinking?!?” This was not one of those.

Shizz happens.

Darnold himself emphasized in his Presser :

Darnold blamed himself. He said his throw to Arroyo was too high, and not into Arroyo’s body where the 6-foot-5, 254-pound tight end could have boxed out the smaller Terrell (6-1, 200).

“Elijah’s such a big body. I feel like I left that one kind of high for him,” Darnold said. “If I could just get that one down, he could box out almost like a rebound in basketball and get the ball.”

https://www.thenewstribune.com/sports/nfl/seattle-seahawks/article313496287.html

Now I understand better what Sam was looking to do there and it made sense as Elijah is a big target.

So I get it and yeah you are correct on the deflected-pass-into-an-interception thing.

I'm just saying that this could've been avoided if he would've just thrown the ball to K9 to get a first down but I guess Hindsight is Hindsight.

Sam made his decision and that's the end of that.

It didn't cost us so that's good.

But when it comes to games against our Divisional foes, he's got to take a bit more of a cautious approach when he passes the ball.

Turnovers won't come back to bite us against bad teams (or, in the Colts game next week, teams without their starting QB) but it will almost certainly come back to bite us against the Rams and 49ers (well mostly the Rams.) in both the regular season and in the Playoffs (most definitely the playoffs).

 

[hox]

I love how some think Sam is at fault when the OL was giving up TONS of pressure in the pass pro. What QB in the NFL thrives when they are under duress from the moment the ball is snapped?

Name. One.

QB is all about timing. Disrupt that timing and you become one dimensional right quick. Sam looks like just about every other QB in the NFL when immediately attacked after the snap.

Mahomes was just picked off 3 times on SNF. Stafford and Lamar had 3 turnovers each just the other week. Josh Allen had 18 picks in 2023 with 5 fumbles.

QBs are not perfect but the standard for Sam seems to be perfection. Does he try to force it at times? Sure, but this offense is still #2 in scoring right now WITHOUT the best (but improving) run game this season.

Lean on the run game, take the check downs, scramble if he must, but don't be afraid to let it rip and be aggressive down field either.

 

[glenwo2]

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