Sam Darnold had an awesome rushing touchdown to put his New York Jets on the board against the Denver Broncos on Thursday night. But that rushing touchdown never should have counted.
The Jets had a 3rd-and-7 at the Denver 46 on their opening possession. Darnold avoided a blitzing linebacker, then broke a tackle and got into the open field. Just when it looked like the Broncos had him, Darnold faked a slide, leading Kareem Jackson to ease up. Darnold used the trick to his advantage and then got past Jackson to score the impressive touchdown.
SAM DARNOLD DID THAT. #TakeFlight
: #DENvsNYJ on @NFLNetwork
: NFL App // Yahoo Sports App: https://t.co/jQ6nvOCVqi pic.twitter.com/z9kVSBMSRv— NFL (@NFL) October 2, 2020
Darnold’s scramble was no doubt a tremendous play, and his ability to evade the blitzer and break a tackle was amazing. But the run should have ended slightly beyond that.
Jackson had Darnold in his sights and eased up when he saw the quarterback hitch and pretend like he was going to slide. After realizing Jackson had eased up, Darnold decided to keep going.
That never should be allowed.
The NFL has made it a point for several years that defensive players are not allowed to touch quarterbacks as they are going down. They have enforced rule after rule emphasizing the protection of quarterbacks. Not touching QBs on a slide is part of that protection. You hit the QB as he is sliding, you get penalized 15 yards. Darnold absolutely abused this rule with his fake slide.
The NFL cannot possibly tell defenders not to touch a sliding quarterback and then allow a quarterback to fake a slide. It’s complete unfair. The NFL needs to implement a rule immediately to ban fake slides; it puts the defense in a lose-lose situation otherwise.
