A TALE OF 2 QBs
Best of times for Darnold, worst of times for Haskins
LANDOVER, Md. — Hail to the Redskins!
Hail to the Redskins! for serving up overwhelmed and overmatched Dwayne Haskins on a burgundy-and-gold platter for Gregg Williams and Jamal Adams (three of Gang Green’s six sacks).
Hail to the Redskins! for fielding a secondary that allowed Sam Darnold to toss a careerhigh four touchdowns.
This one was as simplistic as it gets: The difference in Jets 34, Redskins 17 is the difference between Darnold and Haskins.
Darnold (19-for-30, 293 yards, 4 TDs, 1 INT) looked like a quarterback who has turned the mononucleosis corner and is poised to take that second-year leap.
Haskins (19-35, 214 yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT, 95 yards passing after three quarters) looked like a raw, rattled rookie who started one season at Ohio State in his second NFL start.
He looked like Haskins was seeing ... ahem ... ghosts. Green-and-white ghosts. Darnold can re l ate to t he rookie g r o wi n g pains and offered support fo r Haskins when they met afterward on the field.
“I just told him after the game to keep his head up,” Darnold said. “No matter what people say, the doubters, people who are gonna say anything bad about ... I said, ‘Just block it out, man. Just continue to go to work, and if you go to work every single day, you’ll be all right.’ ”
Darnold has walked that talk and has risen from the rubble with a vengeance. His offense has a rhythm that is allowing him to play faster. He and Adam Gase are suddenly two minds in one body. Darnold has taken ownership of the offense and emerged as the battlef ield commander. Darnold and Gase toyed with the Redskins defense.
“He knows what he likes; he knows what he doesn’t like. He’s not afraid to say it,” Gase said.
Darnold likes improvising a la the young Ben Roethlisberger and throwing deadly aerials out of the pocket to targets who have a growing telepathy with him.
“You see the way he contorts his body and can use his arm strength to get the ball down the field,” tight end Ryan Griffin said. “I just try to stay alive and get open for him.”
And Griffin (5 rec., 109 yards, 1 TD) sure did as he was one of seven di ffe re nt players to catch a pass from Darnold.
“Fo r us, as an offense as a whole, it’s just another stepping stone in the right direction,” Darnold said.
He didn’t l i ke his secondquarter interception because he knew he should have thrown the attempted screen pass into the turf.
“I was just thinking way too much,” Darnold said.
Poor Haskins was forced into thinking way too much until he managed to throw a pair of garbage-time TDs.
“We showed him a lot of different looks. And also them coming off a bye, sometimes those bye weeks can hurt you, you get too lackadaisical and then when you come back, it’s hard to get back into the rhythm of things,” linebacker Jordan Jenkins said.
Giants fans will be in a stampede to tell us that Daniel Jones fared far better against Williams’ defense than Haskins did.
“Once he’s trying to look and the play clock’s getting down to five, three seconds, that’s when you know he’s not really sure what we’re in, so he doesn’t want to snap the ball,” safety Marcus Maye said.
Haskins needs a better supporting cast and earmuffs for the disgusted Redskins faithful chanting “Sell the team!” that is 1-9.
“Life is hard,” Haskins said. “I’ve got to work harder.”
It wasn’t a fair f ight. When Williams wasn’t in his head, Adams was threatening to take it off.
“We did a great job of holding our looks on certain things and showing him different types of blitzes,” Adams said.
Christopher Johnson telling the Jets that Gase would be their head coach in 2020 before playing the Giants and Redskins was tantamount to a manager holding a team meeting before playing the ’62 Mets. Back-to-back wins!!
“Going into this game, I really felt comfortable,” Haskins said.
That changed right after kickoff. Hail to the Redskins!