The final three games including this one are pointless since the Jets aren't going to the post season this year or maybe the season after that. But one thing is for sure, the New York Jets have found their franchise quarterback. Sam Darnold continues to show improvement every week as he nearly completes another comeback against the Houston Texans but fell short after a pass to Robby Anderson fell incomplete on a 4th and 15. Darnold finished the day by completing 24 out of 38 passes for 253 yards and two touchdowns with a QBR rating of 106.1. Although his stats were impressive, his ability to extend the play even when the Texans brought the pressure. Darnold had good games before, but it was mostly just a series of good plays and touchdowns to open guys. But between last week and this week, he was able to keep drives alive and even extended them to buy more time for the receivers to get open. This was a game where Sam Darnold took over and the best part of it was that they still haven't taken the training wheels off of him yet.
Something that we as fans were looking forward to seeing all season long was the Darnold and Robby Anderson connection, in which we finally witnessed for the first time all season long. Anderson completed the day catching 7 passes for 96 yards and a touchdown, but he didn't just run go routes. He was running corners, hitches, comeback, etc. which is I say that this was his best game non stat wise. In order for Robby Anderson to be a true number 1 receiver, he needs to be able to run different type of routes in which he did.
The only downside from this game was the defense and their game plan against Deandre Hopkins. The Jets spent about 72 million on Trumaine Johnson and I'm curious as to why they chose not let him follow Hopkins all game long, instead they let whoever was on his side to cover him and the Jets paid for it. Hopkins had 10 catches for 170 yards and two touchdowns, one of them was the go ahead score that put the Texans back on top. They got burned all game long but one of the bright spots was Henry Anderson as he recorded 3 sacks, which was more than Leonard Williams had in the passed 18 games.
The Jets will play their last home game against the struggling Packers as Darnold will square off against Aaron Rodgers. This is a game where the Jets can win because there the Packers haven't been the same this year and now like the Jets are playing for pride.