Sam Darnold vs. Aaron Donald: That matchup favors aggressive Rams defense

This one could get real ugly. Considering the Jets’ season, that’s saying a lot.

When the Jets play the Rams Sunday in Los Angeles, the NFL’s worst offense faces the No. 1-rated defense with the league’s top game wrecker in Aaron Donald. The best advice for Sam Darnold would be to throw the ball away quick.

"This team has the ability to make you look really bad if you’re careless with the football or you’re careless with the shot clock in your head of holding on to the ball," Jets offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains said Thursday. "You have to play with anticipation versus this team."

One of the knocks on Darnold is he holds on to the ball too long. If he does that against the Rams, Donald or one of their other pass rushers will get to him.

Donald leads the NFL with 12.5 sacks. The Rams have 42, which ranks third. They have 22 sacks over their last seven games, one more than the Jets have all season.

But it’s not just Donald that makes the Rams (9-4) a fierce and stingy defense. They have arguably the NFL’s No. 1 shutdown corner in Jalen Ramsey.

For the 0-13 Jets to even have a chance of staying within striking distance of the Rams, Darnold has to make quick, smart decisions. He has a propensity for wanting to do too much and it leads to ill-advised throws. Darnold has nine interceptions and only five touchdowns. The Rams’ 21 takeaways are the fourth-most in the NFL.

"We always tell Sam, you’re an artist not a blacksmith," Loggains said. "That’s part of playing quarterback. Paint the canvas the way you see it. But it’s also you have to know what strengths the other team has and how they’re going to attack your weaknesses.

"Sam needs to play clean football. Sometimes that means running to get out of a bad spot, sometimes it means throwing the ball away and not forcing things. That’s the biggest thing in this game."

Darnold is having a dreadful season. He threw for only 132 yards last week against the Seahawks’ worst-rated pass defense. The Jets’ 40-3 loss at Seattle was the fifth game this season in which Darnold failed to throw a touchdown pass.

But Loggains believes Darnold can be a successful quarterback not only on Sunday but in the future. Loggains sounded a lot like Adam Gase in praising Darnold’s mental toughness, maturity, work ethic and commitment to leading the Jets.

Loggains said Darnold is doing everything he can to put the Jets in position to win and he holds himself accountable for the losing. Loggains also said that the other 10 players on offense needs to do their jobs for Darnold to have results.

"Sam Darnold’s a young player and his story hasn’t been written," Loggains said. "He’s going to be a really good player in this league. I know it’s close for him. I know it’s a disappointing season for all of us. Sam Darnold deserves the best. He needs to play a clean game this week and we need to play better around him."

This was a game that Darnold was looking forward once upon a time for personal reasons.

The Southern California native thought he would be able to spend time with family and friends. Originally, the Jets were going to stay out on the West Coast for these back-to-back road games at Seattle and Los Angeles. That was before the pandemic, of course.

But Darnold is hoping that he can make it a happy homecoming, nonetheless.

"I marked this one down, this one and Seattle," Darnold said. "I was looking forward to going home, seeing some family if possible. That’s not a thing [now]. But we are looking forward to going there and playing a good team and having that opportunity."