Enough with all the hype. Darnold had a very average game on Saturday. Really only led one long drive. Cal gifts gave him short fields to work with all day. Could have easily thrown at least two more interceptions. Missed a wide open receiver in the end zone. This is a good USC team but not a great one. Had three opportunities in the fourth period to completely put Cal away and could not engineer a game ending time consuming drive. Actually let Cal add another TD late in the fourth quarter against their starting defense. Great USC teams never let these things happen. Still early but they may not be the best team in the conference.

Why are we talking about a Spoiled Child QB?

Not to knock on Cal offense but the last scoring drive was against the second string USC D. How do I know? Because I was surrounded by USC fans on three sides in the front row of QQ.

I believe the pre and post injury reference is for the injury he suffered against Oregon in 2007. That would mean 2006 is pre-injury Longshore, at least according to what I think is the most commonly recognized definition of the phrase. Longshore was only a sophomore in 2006 and was Kiper's #1 rated qb of his class at the end of the season.

It doesn't make sense to talk about Longshore pre Sacramento State injury. That's total conjecture about what he might have been.

Longshore threw a nice deep ball and his 2006 version was a better player than Darnold currently is.

Neither of them are Aaron Rodgers or Jared Goff.

GivemTheAxe said:

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How would you compare him to Shea Paterson of Ole Miss.
To me if Shea were playing for USC He would win the Heisman.

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Okay, so I only saw the 2nd half of the Ole Miss game and I understand Patterson had a great 1st half, but from what I saw, he was terrible and also had a vacant, clueless expression on his face the whole time (like that of the Ole Miss interim coach), as if to say, "I have no idea what's happening to our team right now, but I don't care because I am a zombie.".

Very small sample size, I readily admit.

mvargus said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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tim94501 said:

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Yogi Bear said:

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tim94501 said:

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He's not better than pre injury longshore.

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You are tripping. Pre-injury Longshore was nowhere near as good and Darnold has some interception issues to address. But he's great extending plays and throwing on the move.

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Darnold has nowhere near the touch or accuracy as longshore did. He missed a ton a easy downfield throws.

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Nate Longshore's stats
Sam Darnold's stats

Like I said, you're straight tripping

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I believe he said very clearly "Pre-injury" Longshore. Remember that Longshore got hurt in his first game playing for Cal and never 100% recovered. Comparing the stats is wrong since most of those stats for Longshore are post injury.

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There's no way he's talking about 2005. He's talking about pre-Oregon 2007

tim94501 said:

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mvargus said:

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I believe he said very clearly "Pre-injury" Longshore. Remember that Longshore got hurt in his first game playing for Cal and never 100% recovered. Comparing the stats is wrong since most of those stats for Longshore are post injury.

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Apparently also forgetting that longshore before the injury was looked at as the top junior NFL qb prospect in the country.

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And there's the proof. Not talking about 2005.

bearister said:

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OdontoBear66 said:

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Sam Darnold is not about stats....When the game is on the line, you want him as your QB.....He makes wimpy boy at UCLA look like a distant #2 even though Rosen is great under ideal conditions. Rosen disappears under pressure.............

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If I own an NFL franchise, I WANT HIM. The kid has IT. The End.

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I think Darnold is a great QB and I would want him on my team too if I owned an NFL franchise. That said, he did not look great on Saturday. His pick was a poor decision. He was also very fortunate to not have two other passes intercepted.

GoldenBearofCalifornia said:

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bearister said:

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OdontoBear66 said:

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Sam Darnold is not about stats....When the game is on the line, you want him as your QB.....He makes wimpy boy at UCLA look like a distant #2 even though Rosen is great under ideal conditions. Rosen disappears under pressure.............

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If I own an NFL franchise, I WANT HIM. The kid has IT. The End.

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I think Darnold is a great QB and I would want him on my team too if I owned an NFL franchise. That said, he did not look great on Saturday. His pick was a poor decision. He was also very fortunate to not have two other passes intercepted.

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Those are two different subjects but I would agree. I think at one time he was also 1 for 10 with passes above 10 yards. The rest of his stats below 10 yards. Completions with YAC when you have $Cs receivers. Yes, he had a less than stellar game, but it remains, I would want him as my QB of all that is out there come his NFL career.

OdontoBear66 said:

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GoldenBearofCalifornia said:

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bearister said:

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OdontoBear66 said:

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Sam Darnold is not about stats....When the game is on the line, you want him as your QB.....He makes wimpy boy at UCLA look like a distant #2 even though Rosen is great under ideal conditions. Rosen disappears under pressure.............

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If I own an NFL franchise, I WANT HIM. The kid has IT. The End.

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I think Darnold is a great QB and I would want him on my team too if I owned an NFL franchise. That said, he did not look great on Saturday. His pick was a poor decision. He was also very fortunate to not have two other passes intercepted.

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Those are two different subjects but I would agree. I think at one time he was also 1 for 10 with passes above 10 yards. The rest of his stats below 10 yards. Completions with YAC when you have $Cs receivers. Yes, he had a less than stellar game, but it remains, I would want him as my QB of all that is out there come his NFL career.

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I agree those subjects are not the same. Some people seemed to be questioning his abilities because he did not play well on Saturday. I was saying he is great, even though he did not play well on Saturday.

Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

NortonBear said:

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The ABC announcers were fellating him the whole game! Was so disgusting!

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USC fans on reddit were pretty much united in complaining about it too.

Must have been *really* bad, lol. That was the topic of about 80% of the post game comments, despite the great game.

BearChemist said:

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Not to knock on Cal offense but the last scoring drive was against the second string USC D. How do I know? Because I was surrounded by USC fans on three sides in the front row of QQ.

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You do know that quite a few of Cal players were 2nd string sine our top 3 offensive guys are out and 2 guards were out..

Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

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Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

tim94501 said:

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kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

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Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

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And what does that prove? That the 20 some odd teams that passed on Rodgers did the right thing? Or were they just dumb as fuuck for passing on him?

tim94501 said:

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Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

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that's still pretty much better than anyone at usc, isn't it?

more importantly, didn't tedford deserve credit for recognizing rodgers's talent (when everyone else overlooked him), offering him a scholarship, starting him in place of a (pretty good college qb in) reggie robertson, and helping to develop rodgers?

or do college coaches only get credit for identifying qb talent in high school kids?

01Bear said:

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tim94501 said:

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Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

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that's still pretty much better than anyone at usc, isn't it?

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Carson Palmer's had a nice career.

agreed...but rodgers has arguably had a better one, no?

tim94501 said:

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kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

---

Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

---

This is the silliest knock on Tedford there ever was. It's amazing to me people keep saying it. How is noticing an unheralded guy's talent somehow worth less than offering the 4 or 5-star guy everyone else knows about and offers?

Anyways, all the SC and Tedford QB lists shows is that it's really freakin difficult to be a good NFL quarterback, and any college coach who helped produce a good NFL QB is in elite company.

Darnold biggest strength is pocket presence. He has that Rodgers-like (I said like not that he was as good) ability to naturally drift away from pressure so even though he isn't a "runner" he is hard to track down in the pocket. the diametric contrast is watch Bowers in the pocket. Bowers has the uncanny ability to drift INTO the pass rush. Darnold has a good arm and release and is fairly accurate. His biggest problem is that he doesn't see underneath zones that well and so is prone to throwing INTs to the underneath guy. His other issue this year is that his WRs have had the dropsies and that well....they are pretty good athletes but they aren't necessarily great at route running etc. As far as the NFL goes I think he's got a decent shot but as always it kind of depends on where he ends up

kingpindonuts said:

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tim94501 said:

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kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

---

Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

---

And what does that prove? That the 20 some odd teams that passed on Rodgers did the right thing? Or were they just dumb as fuuck for passing on him?

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Eh? Rodgers was a hot baseball commodity coming out of HS, and it was thought he would go the major league BB route. So, I don't know how dumb they were. But then with a rear view mirror they were, weren't they?

GMP said:

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tim94501 said:

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kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

---

Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

---

This is the silliest knock on Tedford there ever was. It's amazing to me people keep saying it. How is noticing an unheralded guy's talent somehow worth less than offering the 4 or 5-star guy everyone else knows about and offers?

Anyways, all the SC and Tedford QB lists shows is that it's really freakin difficult to be a good NFL quarterback, and any college coach who helped produce a good NFL QB is in elite company.

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Not knocking him just stating that tedford isn't the qb guru that we all thought he was.

Or how about not judging players on superficial similarities. Like *** does Paul Mcdonald in the 70s or whenever he played have to do with Darnold?

GivemTheAxe said:

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How would you compare him to Shea Paterson of Ole Miss.
To me if Shea were playing for USC He would win the Heisman.

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I was just thinking about this after the game. Both are very good college QBs. I can never predict how QBs will transition to the NFL so I won't try.

But in college:
- Darnold is more poised when pressured. He's more willing to take what the defense gives him. Cal's pressure from unpredictable angles bothered Darnold I think, but not as much as it did Patterson. Part of this may just be game experience, which Darnold has more of (Patterson only played a minority of snaps last season I think). Of course, SC's OL may be better than Ole Miss' OL as well. But overall, Darnold just seems more mature.

I also think Darnold is a bit harder to bring down, though Patterson may be faster. Darnold has a bit of Rothliesburger (sp) to him (hopefully just the on-field part).

- Patterson throws a more accurate deep ball. It's not even close. Those completed deep throws to Metcalf were perfect. Even the 2 at the end that Bynum made the great plays on were pretty good. I think Darnold benefited last year from JuJu Smith or some of his other great receivers being wide open (not just by a couple yards like Metcalf was) or making great plays on contested balls. Patterson also may have had a quicker release than Darnold on those longer balls.

I will say that while SC had more talent than Ole Miss (or Cal) in general across the board, the Rebels had better wide receivers than SC does *this* year (without JuJu). Cal caught a break when Ole Miss' AJ Brown got injured on one of Patterson's interceptions and could not return. Brown is one of the best college receivers in the country. And even without him, Metcalf, Lodge (sp?) and the others were excellent.

So in summary, I actually don't know if Darnold or Patterson is the better QB if you surrounded them with similar talent. But there is definitely a contrast in strengths and weaknesses between the two.

tim94501 said:

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kingpindonuts said:

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Calcupcakes said:

---

Until proven otherwise, no Trojan QBs should ever be picked by an NFL team. Teams will just be wasting their picks.

You want evidence?

Paul McDonald
Sean Salisbury
Rodney Peete
Todd Marinovich
Rob Johnson
Leinart
Booty
Sanchez
Barkley
Kessler

The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Remember when people were saying don't draft a Tedford QB like Akili Smith, Trent Dilfer, Joey Harrington, Kyle Boller.

---

Tedford only has one guy who he stumbled upon by accident.

---

The fallacy is all this is most schools that put out QBs regularly into the NFL, have many guys that don't become either Carson Palmer or Aaron Rodgers. Best advise is pick the back-up at Michigan if your not going to analyze players on their specific attributes.

Calcupcakes said:

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The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Carson Palmer is 13th all-time in career passing, will soon pass up Vinny Testeverde (#12), and with a few more good seasons could crack the Top 10. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and you have to be a special kind of stupid to think otherwise.

Darnold is also a good QB, and the only reason people on this forum are acting like little *****es in reference to him is because he is a good QB who happens to play for SC.

Call me stupid then - Palmer is a sure fire hall of famer?

Led the league in TDs once, INTs once, 3 time pro bowler. Has made the postseason three times and won ONE playoff game.

Career comps according to football reference include Matt Hasselback, Troy Aikman, Jay Cutler, Ken Stabler, Mark Brunell, and the legendary Jim Everett.

Strykur said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

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Carson Palmer is 13th all-time in career passing, will soon pass up Vinny Testeverde (#12), and with a few more good seasons could crack the Top 10. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and you have to be a special kind of stupid to think otherwise.

Darnold is also a good QB, and the only reason people on this forum are acting like little *****es in reference to him is because he is a good QB who happens to play for SC.

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Carson Palmer is not a sure fire HOF. It's a pass heavy era, so yes his numbers are high. And the NFL lets just about anyone in, so he might make it. But he shouldn't. And he's not sure fire. I'd throw your own insult back at you, but that'd be immature.

However I agree with your larger point. If Darnold has Palmer's career, that's a very nice career. Who cares if a college QB does not end up an NFL HOFer? That's not the litmus test.

Strykur said:

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Calcupcakes said:

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The only exception is Carson Palmer, who won't be able to go to Canton without a ticket.

Same applies to Darnold. Nothing I've seen on Saturday convinced me otherwise.

---

Carson Palmer is 13th all-time in career passing, will soon pass up Vinny Testeverde (#12), and with a few more good seasons could crack the Top 10. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and you have to be a special kind of stupid to think otherwise.

Darnold is also a good QB, and the only reason people on this forum are acting like little *****es in reference to him is because he is a good QB who happens to play for SC.

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Top 5 dumbest things I've read on this message board ever. Carson Palmer doesn't have a snowballs chance in Phoenix in July at making the NFL HOF UNLESS he wins a Superbowl. No prayer.

tim94501 said:

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Strykur said:

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Carson Palmer is 13th all-time in career passing, will soon pass up Vinny Testeverde (#12), and with a few more good seasons could crack the Top 10. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and you have to be a special kind of stupid to think otherwise.

Darnold is also a good QB, and the only reason people on this forum are acting like little *****es in reference to him is because he is a good QB who happens to play for SC.

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Top 5 dumbest things I've read on this message board ever. Carson Palmer doesn't have a snowballs chance in Phoenix in July at making the NFL HOF UNLESS he wins a Superbowl. No prayer.

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It doesn't approach "Pre-injury Longshore was better than Darnold." That was dumb.

Yogi Bear said:

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tim94501 said:

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Strykur said:

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Carson Palmer is 13th all-time in career passing, will soon pass up Vinny Testeverde (#12), and with a few more good seasons could crack the Top 10. He is a sure-fire Hall of Famer, and you have to be a special kind of stupid to think otherwise.

Darnold is also a good QB, and the only reason people on this forum are acting like little *****es in reference to him is because he is a good QB who happens to play for SC.

---

Top 5 dumbest things I've read on this message board ever. Carson Palmer doesn't have a snowballs chance in Phoenix in July at making the NFL HOF UNLESS he wins a Superbowl. No prayer.

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It doesn't approach "Pre-injury Longshore was better than Darnold." That was dumb.

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One is opinion one is just wrong. Darnold a has a 1 to 1 int to td ratio this year and hasn't played against a great team. At the end of the year bump this thread.

wifeisafurd said:

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The fallacy is all this is most schools that put out QBs regularly into the NFL, have many guys that don't become either Carson Palmer or Aaron Rodgers. Best advise is pick the back-up at Michigan if your not going to analyze players on their specific attributes.

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Talking about NFL quarterbacks it's a given that most "successful" college quarterbacks will not have "successful" NFL careers. It's not a knock at a collegiate level but it is a fun discussion for the NFL level.

I think a lot of us have observed that premiere college quarterbacks from the powerhouse college football programs have a low success rate in the NFL. USC provides a great example with a long litany of dominant college quarterbacks that did not do much in the NFL. The theory is that having dominant players around a college quarterback makes them look better and perhaps even stifles their development when it comes to passing in the pocket under pressure, since they face little pressure and their WR's are better than the cornerbacks they face.

As that applies to Darnold, you have to ask yourself, is he the exception or is he the rule. Everything I've seen from him (inconsistent downfield throwing and decisionmaking) tells me that he is the rule for USC quarterbacks (Carson Palmer being an exception). In my opinion, Darnold will have an outstanding college career and will not do much in the NFL.

On the Carson Palmer to Todd Marinovich scale I put Darnold down at about a Matt Barkley.

For comparison, a great quarterback at a program like Cal probably has a higher success rate in the NFL because they have succeeded without as many tools around them. Programs like Cal have fewer great quarterbacks, partly because the talent around them does not make the quarterback look better (often the opposite). Goff spent his entire career at Cal dropping dimes with people in his face. That is great training for the NFL. Josh Rosen is really developing under duress and his throws are special. I think he'll have a good NFL career. Of course, it's all conjecture.

darnold doesn't have great offensive talent around him except for his RBs.

dajo9 said:

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USC provides a great example with a long litany of dominant college quarterbacks that did not do much in the NFL.

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I wouldn't say that USC has had many dominant quarterbacks. The ones I can think of that put up really good stats and crashed in the NFL are Leinart and Sanchez in his last season (prior to that, he wasn't much).