Sam Darnold showed no lingering effects from his bout with mononucleosis, single-handedly injecting hope into a previously lifeless team.
The numbers matched up with Darnold’s eye-popping performance. He threw for 338 yards on 32 pass attempts, averaging a career-best 10.6 yards per attempt (his first game above 10.0) while earning a 113.8 passer rating. He joined Deshaun Watson and Cam Newton as the only under-23 quarterbacks over the past 35 years to have a game with 10.0-plus yards per attempt and a 100.0-plus passer rating on at least 30 pass attempts.
After a bumpy start to his rookie season, Darnold has begun to string together efficient performances.