From Sam's Redemption Season to his Redemption Game

I think KOC and Sam are in vastly different circumstances, even though they are tied at the hip this season.

We'll see. Sam has had two bad games in 17. That one was by far the worst, despite not throwing three picks like in the Jags game. He either bounces back in LA or he doesn't and his Cinderella season (and ours) comes to an end. He's still going to get a bag though, and the Vikings are still on the precipice of what should be a good, long window.

I am not even going to comment on Darnold’s play last night. Rather I’d like to comment on the reaction to it.

Sam Darnold, for most of his career, has been perceived as a laughable bust. People have been waiting all season for the other shoe to drop. For any other quarterback, who had a game like he just did, people would just be ready to move on and get ready for the next game. With Sam, everyone will question whether he’s going to drift back to the mean.

I don’t know what kind of success Sam would have to produce from here on out to erase the first seven years of his career, but clearly 16 games this year has not been enough. That’s the big worry I have with Sam. Every time he has an off game, people are going to ask whether the “old Sam” is back. It will be interesting to see how he responds in LA.

Sam Darnold is quite literally playing for the rest of his career next Monday.

CFIAvike wrote:
I am not even going to comment on Darnold’s play last night. Rather I’d like to comment on the reaction to it.

Sam Darnold, for most of his career, has been perceived as a laughable bust. People have been waiting all season for the other shoe to drop. For any other quarterback, who had a game like he just did, people would just be ready to move on and get ready for the next game. With Sam, everyone will question whether he’s going to drift back to the mean. 

I don’t know what kind of success Sam would have to produce from here on out to erase the first seven years of his career, but clearly 16 games this year has not been enough. That’s the big worry I have with Sam. Every time he has an off game, people are going to ask whether the “old Sam” is back. It will be interesting to see how he responds in LA.

Sam Darnold is quite literally playing for the rest of his career next Monday.

Hence, "redemption game".

Everything regarding the perception of Sam Darnold has one week to define itself...for better or worse. He will be seen as the "bad Sam" version for the next 7 days, after seemingly falling apart in Detroit. He and KOC both have a ton of work to do, as our head coach still only has a one-and-done in his postseason resume in the top job.

Zanary wrote:

Hence, "redemption game".

Everything regarding the perception of Sam Darnold has one week to define itself...for better or worse. He will be seen as the "bad Sam" version for the next 7 days, after seemingly falling apart in Detroit. He and KOC both have a ton of work to do, as our head coach still only has a one-and-done in his postseason resume in the top job.

I don’t think next week is a reflection on KOC at all. His job is safe no matter what. There would be a literal line of teams fighting over themselves for the chance to hire KOC.

Our future is JJM not Sam. The sooner we let that future begin, the better.

One overlooked fact was the refs let Detroit manhandle our receivers. That was a big difference in the game IMO.

greediron wrote:
One overlooked fact was the refs let Detroit manhandle our receivers.  That was a big difference in the game IMO.

I dont want to be that guy,  but the refs were fucking us all night long.  even if they didnt want to call the safety or the intentional grounding,  the pass hit a lions linemen,  isnt that an illegal touch?

Collinsworth and tirico were waxing poetic about how good of a job the lions DBs were doing covering JJ and they had a few clips ready... I saw blatant PI or Illegal contact in every single one... and not ticky tack shit either,  very obvious shit that has to be called.

better not hear any lions fans cry about the Chiefs getting calls,  looked like we were playing the packers in lambeau last night.

For sure the Lions were holding our WRs and TE on every play, however to get the calls you have to try to fight through it and be more physical and chirp at the refs and we did not do any of that. The more physical they played, it seemed like the softer we got. This game was largely on Darnold, but our WRs and TE carry almost as much of the blame, he had all day to throw many times and there was no one open and just did not see a lot effort there. The body language of our receivers looked pretty defeated all night.

Lions played very physical man coverage and lots of Zero Blitzing. Our skill players ought to be a bit embarrassed by the box scores today.

I agree, the ref's swallowed their whistles last night and they blew the intentional grounding in the end zone on Goff too.

I guess I would rather have them not throw flags than throw too many.

Darnold was under pressure at a 49% rate! The OL did a terrible job but it was mostly two culprits - Robinson (9 pressures allowed!) and Brandel (8 allowed!). 

Darnold was definitely rattled. The OL did not play well and there were so many dropped balls. It was a shit show all around. 

KOC is going to get an extension regardless

Throwing dirt on Darnold after last night would be silly. He's been too good. For me, even if he has lays another egg on Monday night, he still had a fantastic season and I still think the team should bring him back. I would understand some hesitancy but this is still the guy we need to lead us to the Super Bowl, who's played awesome this year. Maybe Lucy doesn't yank the football back this time.

StickierBuns wrote:
Jason Harmon · 1h A lot of the people saying “we have no idea how JJ McCarthy would have handled that type of pressure!” clearly don’t know how big of a stage the National Championship is.

Oh please, Jason Harmon. You know who else shined under the pressure of a national championship? Bryce Young and Stetson Bennett and Tua Tagosomething and Mac Jones and Jameis Winston and Tim Tebow and Vince Young and Matt Leinart and...

Let's just be happy we drafted our QBOTF and he looked very good in the preseason and we're fixin' to embark on several years of QB on a Rookie Salary and all that goes with it. We don't have to pretend that JJ McCarthy would've won this game for us. The quote is right: "we have no idea."

No Sam did not - he was rattled and with that his mechanicals went to hell too.

His coach did little (that I saw) to help him out either.

This is one really big game where I am going to be vocally critical about the HC getting out coached. Where as Flo had that D primed to win until they got gassed.

I have no idea how JJM would have handled this...Other than an inkling he may be better at off script than Sam. And we needed that last night.