Coming off Monday night's blowout loss to the Patriots, Jets quarterback Sam Darnold joined ESPN's The Michael Kay Show to explain what exactly happened at MetLife Stadium.
"...It was mostly mental," Darnold said when asked if they mistakes made were mental or physical. "It was stuff we practiced throughout the week...we did well in the Dallas game taking practice into Sunday. We didn't take practice to Monday. I didn't do it. My whole offense, as far as I know, didn't do it.
"We pride ourselves on not making mental mistakes and we did a lot of that [Monday] night."
Darnold seemed to be eager to get rid of the ball instead of taking a hit or a sack--sometimes throwing an interception or four in doing so--but he said it had nothing to do with his recent mono diagnosis, which enlarged his spleen.
"That didn't cross my mind at all. I think more so they were just bad decisions," Darnold said.
Despite the Jets seemingly failing in all three phases of the game--as Adam Gase alluded to after the game--Darnold felt that the coaches put the team in the best preparation to win Monday night.
"I think the gameplan, we were set to win. And it's a bummer too because we just didn't execute. I could've executed the plays a lot better and as an offense we could've executed a lot better and we will do better in the future, that's for sure," Darnold said.
"There's a lot of bad stuff that we put on tape last night, but at the same time, we've just got to take it in and learn from it. That's all we can do."
When asked whether the Jets just had a bad game or are the Patriots just that good, Darnold had this to say: "Well, we had a bad game, that's for sure. It was probably one of, if not the, worst games of our season so far."
"But I definitely want to give credit where credit is due. I mean the Patriots have a really, really good defense, coached by one of the best coaches in the NFL's history. So you've got to give credit where credit is due, but we didn't play our best out there.
Then the interview took an interesting turn.
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, ESPN's Luis Riddick tweeted this out:
Zero blitzing has been around for 30 years +. Simulated pressure/showing blitz and dropping 7/rushing with 4 has been around for 30+ years! This stuff isn't new! It's just a matter of whether or not you have a plan for it and a QB that is equipped to execute against it!
- Louis Riddick (@LRiddickESPN) October 22, 2019
The tweet, which seemed to point at the Patriots defense against the Jets, was liked by Darnold's teammate Jamal Adams, so Michael Kay called into question whether or not Adams was saying that Darnold didn't have a plan for it or if he couldn't handle it.
"This is the first time I'm hearing about it, but i think it's true. It's something that we definitely had a plan for and obviously didn't execute it. ...I'm not going to get into the whole Jamal liking Louis Riddick's tweet."
There's certainly a lot to take out of Monday's game, that's for sure.