LANDOVER, Md. — Toward the end of the game, all Sam Darnold wanted to talk about on the sideline was his interception.
Thanks to Darnold’s career-high four touchdown passes and the Washington Redskins’ offensive ineptitude, that mistake was a mere blip in the Jets’ 34-17 rout on Sunday.
Darnold completed 19 of 30 passes for 293 yards and threw touchdowns to Daniel Brown, Robby Anderson, Ryan Griffin and the former Redskins receiver Jamison Crowder, helping the Jets win their second game in a row.
“For us as an offense as a whole, it’s just another steppingstone in the right direction,” Darnold said. “Once our offense is in a really good rhythm, it’s easy for me and a lot of the other guys on the offense to go and make plays.”
Although he was picked off deep in his own territory by Jon Bostic, Darnold, the 2018 third overall pick, bounced back and now has 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions this season. Darnold excelled at throwing on the run and managed the game well.
“He’s still developing,” Crowder said. “You can definitely tell that he’s starting to be a little more vocal, take ownership of the offense, which he should — that’s part of the development of a quarterback in this league. I’m just glad he’s taking the right steps to become a great quarterback in this league.”
The Jets (3-7) sacked the Redskins’ rookie quarterback, Dwayne Haskins, six times, three of those by safety Jamal Adams, and linebacker Neville Hewitt intercepted him in his return to the lineup. Le’Veon Bell ran for a 1-yard touchdown, and the Jets reached 400 yards of offense for the first time in 20 games.
Derrius Guice scored on a 45-yard screen pass early in the fourth quarter, ending Washington’s franchise-record run of 16 consecutive quarters without a touchdown. Haskins was 19 of 35 passing for 214 yards and threw touchdown passes to Guice and tight end Jeremy Sprinkle in his first game since being named starter for the rest of the season.
That feels like a long time away for two teams on pace for a top-five draft pick. The Jets appear to have made some progress under the first-year coach Adam Gase, while the Redskins are 1-4 under the interim replacement Bill Callahan and are off to their worst 10-game start since 1961, when they were 0-9-1.
“I don’t think we were close today,” Callahan said. “We didn’t come out and put together the type of game early on to make it competitive and put ourselves in a put ourselves in a position to win or separate, or do anything. We dug ourselves a pretty good hole and we never really recovered from it.”
Source: Football - nytimes.com
