Monday night was a particularly rough one for the Jets, falling 33-0 to the Patriots at home in a brutal Week 7 loss.
Sam Darnold had an especially bad outing.
The 22-year-old quarterback turned the ball over five times on his own Monday night, failing to notch a single point against the Pats. Darnold completed just 11 of 32 passes for just 86 yards, a far cry from his impressive performance against the Dallas Cowboys the week prior.
After one particularly brutal drive toward the end of the first half, ESPN mics caught Darnold saying he was “seeing ghosts” on the field. He gave the remark some context after the game.
“You know, I think for me, when I talk to the coaches, I’ve just got to be straight up. And for me, I’ve just got to see the field a lot better,” Darnold told reporters after the game, per NFL Network’s Kimberly Jones. “That’s kind of what that means.”
Head coach Adam Gase was also asked to weigh in on the comment and echoed most of Darnold’s thoughts.
“Obviously, when we go back and look at this, he’s not going to be happy,” Gase said, per the team. “He probably was feeling like guys were coming free when they might not have been. It’s tough. … If you guys don’t pick some of this stuff up early, they’re going to keep bringing it and they’re going to find different ways to bring it. And then it’s just going to get bad from there, which it did.”
That said, Darnold is taking the defeat in stride.
“It was a rough day out there, rough night out there. Obviously, I’ve got to be better and learn from the mistakes,” Darnold said, per Jones. “But we will get better.”
Considering the Jets now are 1-5 after their second loss of the season to the Pats, they’ll have to kick things into high gear if they want any shot (however slim it may be) at the postseason.
