New York Jets running back Le’Veon Bell wants young quarterback Sam Darnold to look forward after his brutal Monday night showing.
The New York Jets are reeling after a brutal loss on Monday Night Football to the hated New England Patriots, in which Sam Darnold looked dreadful. Darnold had five turnovers and was caught on a live microphone saying he was “seeing ghosts” during the game.
In a video posted on Twitter by CJ Fogler, Le’Veon Bell told reporters what advice he’d offered to Darnold. After Darnold told him that he had played one of the worst games of his life, Bell reminded him that there would be more opportunities in the future.
LeVeon Bell's advice to Sam Darnold is good pic.twitter.com/mJ0ca0L3aa
— CJ Fogler AKA Perc70 #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) October 22, 2019
“I said, ‘hey bro, there’s always been games like that where you don’t play well, and now you know you can only play better from here on out. You can’t play worse than you played tonight.’ I think he learned a lot from that. Sometimes you got to have that for a young player, you know, I had games like that and it made me better.”
It’s certainly hard to argue with Bell’s assessment that Darnold can’t play much worse than he did. He completed only 11 of his 32 pass attempts with four interceptions and a lost fumble as the offense was shut out. He was held to 86 passing yards.
The only positive for Darnold is that the fumble wasn’t a result of running into the backside of one of his offensive linemen. Other than that, it is a game that Darnold will want to forget.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick had Darnold flummoxed all game, leading to his seeing ghosts comment to his coaches. However, Darnold was wearing a live mic during the game, and ESPN aired the comment, a decision that did not sit well with Jets coach Adam Gase.
Bell took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon to defend his quarterback and agree with his head coach saying the NFL “screwed Sammy over” and that they “did Sam dirty as h*ll.”
The NFL screwed Sammy over…there’s not one player in the NFL who’s cool with having every sideline convo broadcasted to millions…there’s a reason we’ve never heard other QB’s frustrated on the sideline like that before…that’s crazy, @NFL did Sam dirty as hell https://t.co/2XmYXNTNoL
— Le'Veon Bell (@LeVeonBell) October 22, 2019
As frustrating as a season as it’s been for the Jets, it’s clear that their star running back still has their franchise quarterback’s back, both in person and on the internet. Darnold will look to get it back together Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
