Joe Namath was as shocked as anyone.
The Jets legend couldn’t believe just how poorly things went for Sam Darnold and the Jets on Monday night during their ugly 33-0 loss to the Patriots at MetLife Stadium, particularly Darnold’s mechanics as the sophomore quarterback remarked he was “seeing ghosts.”
“I have grown to believe, in watching Sam here in the interviews for the past year and this short change, Sam’s trying so hard to do things the way he’s asked to do them, that he’s even taken on terminology,” Namath said Tuesday. “I hear the words coming out of Sam that his quarterback coach, his offensive coaches or whatever, use. That word ‘ghost,’ I’m thinking, I’m wondering, yeah, did somebody yell at Sam? Did he overhear somebody say, ‘Well, damn, he’s seeing ghosts’?
“Because there were times that he was backing off throwing the ball when there wasn’t anybody right in his face. And as a former quarterback, you’ve got to catch that, you’ve got to learn that. It’s sometimes … uncontrollable to flinch. Your eyes close when somebody swings at your head or gets in front of your face. But his footwork was at its worst that I have seen it in the two years that — not two years complete, a year and change — throwing the ball, throwing it up for grabs damn near. And that’s high school. I don’t think you can get away with that even in college, high school. He might’ve been seeing ghosts, and I think he might have been repeating what someone told him, whether it be another player on the team or a coach on the team: ‘Damn, boy, you’re seeing ghosts, plant those feet and throw.’ I just think he’s a young player at this time and he’s gonna get more mature and better and smarter, and had an awful night last night.”
