That one sucked." That was how Sam Darnold opened his postgame press conference Thursday night after a 17-14 overtime loss to the Broncos. He was talking about his performance, but he could have been talking about everything offensively from both sides ... and, from a neutral viewer's perspective, the game as a whole. The Broncos won despite 168 yards of offense, the fewest in an overtime win in NFL history.
The Seahawks generated 353 yards of offense but wasted much of it with three turnovers and a missed field goal. Both Nix and Darnold are going through major struggles of very different types this season. Darnold is tied with Justin Herbert with seven interceptions this year, and that's despite him missing most of the season opener and all of Week 2 with a leg injury.
Nix, meanwhile, is averaging an NFL-low 5.6 yards per attempt, and he's not really exploring trying to raise that rate. His 4.9 air yards per attempt is not just the lowest in the NFL this season, but the lowest by any quarterback through six games in the last 20 seasons. After the game Thursday, Amazon Prime analyst and former NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick ripped into Nix for "not playing competitive football." If there's one thing bonding both teams -- and both quarterbacks -- it's that the mini-bye comes at a very good time to evaluate, re-evaluate and make changes.
It's not as if the world is crashing down: Seattle is 3-3, Denver 4-2. But it's clear neither is operating at a Super Bowl-winning level or close to it, and given the high expectations of both, that isn't good enough. "They're incredibly valuable," Mike Macdonald said about the extra three days.
"Yes, incredibly valuable. So the responsibility, or onus, is on us to go make it come to life. So that's what we intend to do." But can either quarterback actually do it?
All turnovers are bad, but not all are equally bad. Both of Darnold's turnovers Thursday were of the "really bad" variety. In the fourth quarter, down 14-11, the Seahawks faced a third-and-1 at the Denver 39-yard line.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
