I still can’t believe Sam Darnold won a Superbowl

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Legatron4

Legatron4

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Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Messages
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ROD Credit 2025
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Wes
I was just going through my usual weekly Rams highlights, watching the new guys and I decided to finally rewatch the NFC championship. I’m am still in total shock that Sam Darnold has a ring. It actually might be the most bewildering thing to ever happen in the NFL. I truly do not understand how in the world this was ever able to take place.

I mean, look at this year by year stat line. How the fuck did he just randomly become good? None of it makes sense. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.


2025
2025		SEA
4,048
4,048​
25
25​
14
14​
99.1
99.1​
2024
2024		MIN
4,319
4,319​
35
35​
12
12​
102.5
102.5​
2023
2023		SF
297
297​
2
2​
1
1​
85.1
85.1​
2022
2022		CAR
1,143
1,143​
7
7​
3
3​
92.6
92.6​
2021
2021		CAR
2,527
2,527​
9
9​
13
13​
71.9
71.9​
2020
2020		NYJ
2,208
2,208​
9
9​
11
11​
72.7
72.7​
2019
2019		NYJ
3,024
3,024​
19
19​
13
13​
84.3
84.3​
2018
2018		NYJ
2,865
2,865​
17
17​
15
15​
77.​

Anyway, rant over. It just blows my mind.
 
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Legatron4 said:
I was just going through my usual weekly Rams highlights, watching the new guys and I decided to finally rewatch the NFC championship. I’m am still in total shock that Sam Darnold has a ring. It actually might be the most bewildering thing to ever happen in the NFL. I truly do not understand how in the world this was ever able to take place.

I mean, look at this year by year stat line. How the fuck did he just randomly become good? None of it makes sense. I don’t think I’ll ever get over it.



2025
2025		SEA
4,048
4,048​
25
25​
14
14​
99.1
99.1​
2024
2024		MIN
4,319
4,319​
35
35​
12
12​
102.5
102.5​
2023
2023		SF
297
297​
2
2​
1
1​
85.1
85.1​
2022
2022		CAR
1,143
1,143​
7
7​
3
3​
92.6
92.6​
2021
2021		CAR
2,527
2,527​
9
9​
13
13​
71.9
71.9​
2020
2020		NYJ
2,208
2,208​
9
9​
11
11​
72.7
72.7​
2019
2019		NYJ
3,024
3,024​
19
19​
13
13​
84.3
84.3​
2018
2018		NYJ
2,865
2,865​
17
17​
15
15​
77.​

Anyway, rant over. It just blows my mind.
Click to expand...

That’s easy….

Jets
Jets
Jets
Carolina
Carolina


Then he gets good coaching from Shannahan

Goes to a decent team with a decent coach.

Goes to a stacked team.

It’s not rocket science. Very few quarterbacks can out play bad coaching. I seriously doubt any quarterback can do it in his first three years
 
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He was great under Kevin O'Connell when protected. But they asked him to win the games for them with mediocre defense and once his protection broke down he couldn't handle it. Seahawks didn't ask him to win it for them just not turn it over and rely on defense.
 
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HitStick said:
That’s easy….

Jets
Jets
Jets
Carolina
Carolina


Then he gets good coaching from Shannahan

Goes to a decent team with a decent coach.

Goes to a stacked team.

It’s not rocket science. Very few quarterbacks can out play bad coaching. I seriously doubt any quarterback can do it in his first three years
Click to expand...
Exactly. That and some QBs need time to develop but the NFL has just become a "win now" league and teams don't have the patience to wait for that to happen. A bad team drafted a good QB prospect and watched a good team reap the benefits.
 
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Psycho_X said:
He was great under Kevin O'Connell when protected. But they asked him to win the games for them with mediocre defense and once his protection broke down he couldn't handle it. Seahawks didn't ask him to win it for them just not turn it over and rely on defense.
Click to expand...
We broke that Vikings team in the playoffs and they couldn't handle it and blamed it on Darnold. I feel for KOC as a former Ram but he unexpectedly had a good thing going with Darnold and royally fucked it up by sticking to the plan with McCarthy. They had plenty of practice reps to evaluate so I don't know how they didn't see last year's disaster coming.
 
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Darnold averaged 160 yards and 1 TD in the Niners divisional game and Super Bowl. Let the defense and special teams win the games. Not even average QB production numbers.

It’s the championship game vs us where he shined. Our terrible secondary that we ignored in free agency and the draft to go for a TE.

We learned our lesson.

Darnold is still a game manager that will require a healthy Elite defense to lead the way or he is toast.
 
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He definitely capitalized on our shit secondary. But I still think he was underestimated. Dude did a lot of good things for Minnesota that year, winning that many games was impressive by itself. And he got the job done.

Seattle's a defensive team. But defense is also a QB's best friend. Limits your mistakes, gets you the ball back, lets you play hero.
 
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dang said:
Darnold was good enough to expose a C- Rams DB group. And it didn’t hurt that he had a RB who peaked in the playoffs.
Click to expand...
And let’s not forget that last year many of the perennially good teams picked that season to have a bad year.
 
fearsomefour said:
I agree with Hit Stick.
Darnold has elite traits, first round traits.
He finally got good coaching that knew how to play to his strengths.
As far as Darnold winning a Super Bowl being the strangest one......
Both Trent Dilfer and Tony Banks disagree.
Click to expand...
LOL, Tony Banks DID NOT, win a Super Bowl. At least not playing.
 
jjab360 said:
We broke that Vikings team in the playoffs and they couldn't handle it and blamed it on Darnold. I feel for KOC as a former Ram but he unexpectedly had a good thing going with Darnold and royally fucked it up by sticking to the plan with McCarthy. They had plenty of practice reps to evaluate so I don't know how they didn't see last year's disaster coming.
Click to expand...
I’ll never understand the decision to move off of Darnold and try again with mccarthy. They just didn’t want to admit a mistake when they were lucky enough to have a solution.

So Darnold goes and wins a title and the mccarthy mistake is confirmed. And just like that the once promising vikings are lost again.

I wonder what a Vikings forum was saying about letting darnold walk back then.
 
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jjab360 said:
I feel for KOC as a former Ram but he unexpectedly had a good thing going with Darnold and royally fucked it up by sticking to the plan with McCarthy. They had plenty of practice reps to evaluate so I don't know how they didn't see last year's disaster coming.
Click to expand...

fanotodd said:
I’ll never understand the decision to move off of Darnold and try again with mccarthy. They just didn’t want to admit a mistake when they were lucky enough to have a solution.

So Darnold goes and wins a title and the mccarthy mistake is confirmed. And just like that the once promising vikings are lost again.

I wonder what a Vikings forum was saying about letting darnold walk back then.
Click to expand...
It’s a very surprising to me KOC couldn’t see the difference between Darnold and McCarthy every day. Really odd he/they misread that.
 
CGI_Ram said:
It’s a very surprising to me KOC couldn’t see the difference between Darnold and McCarthy every day. Really odd he/they misread that.
Click to expand...
I would say that's an organizational decision all the way, when you're dealing with the selection of a Quarterback in the 1st round. The Vikings were very sensitive to that. It's very possible that that decision was well out of O' Connell's hands, IMHO.
 
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Coliseum Ram said:
I would say that's an organizational decision all the way, when you're dealing with the selection of a Quarterback in the 1st round. The Vikings were very sensitive to that. It's very possible that that decision was well out of O' Connell's hands, IMHO.
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True. It’s crazy though… they could have sat on McCarthy and traded him. Now he has no value and they have no Darnold.

They really screwed the pooch on this one.
 
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CGI_Ram said:
True. It’s crazy though… they could have sat on McCarthy and traded him. Now he has no value and they have no Darnold.

They really screwed the pooch on this one.
Click to expand...
Oh they totally screwed it. Just trying to take some of the blame off of our guy. I bet that was more GM/ Ownership driven.

And let's not also forget, his bad performance in his only playoff game against us had a lot to do with it. Not to mention the egg he laid the week before at Detroit. Still the wrong decision for Minnesota, just trying to understand it is all.
 
Hes not even close to a top 10 QB in the NFL IMO. He turned the ball over a TON.

They won the Super Bowl because they got lucky against us - twice. The two pt conversion bullshit and then the muffed punt.

Its similar to Foles Super Bowl run from a few years ago. You get a first round bye, you have a good team around you and they blow the doors off of someone and then you need to have one great game in a shootout. Foles' just happened to be in the Super Bowl and Darnold against us in the NFCCG.

IMO people are overrating Darnold because he was a high pick and he played for USC.
 
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