There’s no doubt that the “I’m seeing ghosts” soundbyte taken from Jets’ quarterback Sam Darnold during Monday Night Football’s nationally televised broadcast earlier this week will live on in infamy. Immediately going viral, a variety of memes have to follow. Some will no doubt feature James Kilpatrick, the lead character in “Power” also named Ghost. It’ll live on like the “Butt Fumble” of November 2012.
It somewhat overshadows the Jets’ 33-nothing loss to the New England Patriots, where the soundbyte was taken. It does highlight Darnold’s lackluster 11-of-32, 86 yards and 4 interceptions on the night, and the poor performance of his teammates.
Seeing ghosts is an extrasensory perception, a sixth sense in addition to the main five, sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. But in reality, they’re something that a young quarterback can imagine during combat. It’s actually thinking that they’re seeing one particular defense as opposed to another, or not recognizing being blitzed or not being blitzed. They’re not seeing the action, the on field game, the way they need to.
What the New York Jets’ second year QB actually saw was the superior prowess of their division rivals, the Patriots their head coach Bill Belichick, their quarterback Tom Brady and their experience from attaining six Super Bowl wins from nine Super Bowl appearances, and their 16 divisional championships since 2001. These teams have had an innate ability to expose and take advantage of all weaknesses, on all sides of the ball. Ironically, the Pats also caused the “Butt Fumble” nearly seven years ago.
New England began exposing and taking advantage of the Jets’ defensive weaknesses from the very first drive of Monday night’s game; 16 plays going 78 yards, running off eight minutes and 47 seconds off the first quarter clock. They dominated the quarter, holding the ball for 12-plus minutes. That’s 12-plus minutes that the Jets defensive team is out there, 12-plus minutes of rest for New England’s.
“We got off to a good start,” noted Patriots’ head coach Bill Belichick. “I thought it was a great opening drive. Seemed like it took up most of the first quarter.”
Brady, 31-of-45 for 249 yards, noted the balance of run plays and passes that were executed. “It was a good balance with different kinds of distribution with the ball. The big guys did a good job up front running it. We had some good passes in there.” And they did. All throughout the game.
“That was brutal,” said Jets head coach Adam Gase. “We couldn’t do anything right. All three phases, we were bad. It was just a
bad performance.”
The Jets, 0-and-5, have to put the ghosts of New England behind them and move on to their next adventure, the 3-and-4 Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday and the Miami Dolphins after that, both road games followed up by the New York Giants at home and a trip to Washington, D.C. Other teams with multiple 5-and-6 losses.