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Totally agree with this approach.
I think most of us suspected that Sam Darnold wasn’t going to play this week.
But Adam Gase absolutely did the right thing waiting until Friday to announce that Darnold wasn’t going to play at Philadelphia on Sunday.
Gase dragged out the decision until today, two days before the game.
I totally agree with approach – make the Eagles prepare for both Darnold and Luke Falk, who have two totally different playing styles.
Love this kind of gamesmanship. Sometimes I’d even take it until game day.
Making opposing defensive coaches prepare for two different quarterbacks, with distinctly different skill sets, is a pain in the butt.
The media can ask myriad questions begging for an answers during the week, but you owe them nothing.
The job of the coach is prepare his team to win on Sunday, not provide reporters information.
So Gase did the right thing waiting to announce this decision.
I always found it hard to believe, that let’s say Darnold was at the team hotel in Philadelphia on Saturday, and Dr. Ken Montomery, Dr. Damion Martins and Dr. Andrew Willis say, “Joe (Douglas) and Adam (Gase), his spleen is no longer enlarged and he can play.” Do you think it they would made it a slam dunk that he was going to play if he was cleared on Saturday from such a serious medical issue?
Maybe I’m missing something, but that would be a little reckless.
Like let’s say you have pneumonia for a couple of weeks, and then you are cleared on Saturday of pneumonia, is it a good idea to play tackle football the next day? Probably not. Probably best to give your body a little more time, like another week, which the Jets are clearly looking to do here.
Can you imagine if Darnold got cleared on Saturday, and then Fletcher Cox sacked him, slammed him into the ground, and he got hurt. Imagine the backlash, imagine the bad PR, with people claiming the player was rushed back.
But with all that being said, nothing wrong with making people wonder over the last two weeks what the Jets were going to do, especially the Eagles.
As for Falk, I certainly think he will do better this week against an Eagles defense ravaged at cornerback – absolutely ravaged. If Falk, and offensive play-caller Adam Gase, can’t get anything going against this Eagles secondary, they should be ashamed of themselves. The Eagles are so thin at cornerback, they might need to talk Lito Shepherd or Troy Vincent out of retirement.
Regardless of who the starting quarterback is, the Jets have no excuse to perform offensively the way they did in the first three games. Their offensive coaches had two weeks to prepare the game plan and fix some of the issues. Gase came in with a great reputation as an offensive coach, so we need to start seeing some of that. I’m not trying to be a jerk about this, just keeping it real. Adam needs to step up, and I’m sure he’s well aware of that.
Watching the Rams last night with all the creativity from Sean McVay, with all the route-combinations, and misdirection, getting guys wide open, you wonder when we will start seeing more of this from Gase, regardless of who is under center.
And the Jets might the right decision not putting Darnold under center this week.
Also the right decision waiting to announce it.
October 4, 2019
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