Caleb Williams Had Weird Shade for Sam Darnold
The Minnesota Vikings toppled the Chicago Bears in Week 12, surviving a bizarre late-game advance from their secondary foe and winning 30-27.
Caleb Williams Had Weird Shade for Sam Darnold
Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams looked spectacular at times on Sunday — and in over his head at others.
And that duality carried over to his postgame press conference, too. Williams spoke about Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell, and either inadvertently or jarringly, threw a little shade at Minnesota signal-caller Sam Darnold.
“Met O’Connell at the draft and all these different things, so when someone comes over to you, that’s having guys, Sam Darnold, even, out there balling. He’s been a great coach so far, I believe, and those encouraging words are important,” Williams told reporters.
In all likelihood, Williams got tongue-tied and threw in the word “even” accidentally. Both men attended USC, and NFL quarterbacks exist in a fraternity-like setting. However, Williams implied that “even Sam Darnold can be good with that guy,” which is an obvious slight.
On an afternoon when everything had trended horribly rotten within 20 minutes of real time, Minnesota asked Darnold to lead a game-winning drive on the road at Soldier Field, a notorious house of horrors for virtually every Vikings team of yesteryear. Darnold said, “Sure.”
He’s also on pace with the Vikings to fully reclaim his career, ranking 10th leaguewide among all NFL quarterbacks per EPA+CPOE, an efficiency metric measuring expected wins added. Scaled to a 17-game season, Darnold is scheduled to throw 4,200 passing yards, 32 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.
Williams, on the other hand, ranks 30th among 35 quarterbacks per the same EPA+CPOE metric.
Darnold said after the dub in Chicago, “I was just going out there executing, taking it one play at a time. I really do think it’s as simple as that. And just not trying to do too much.”
“If I feel like, you know, a play, I’ve got to scramble out of the pocket or something, and it’s not there, just throw it away. Or sometimes, if I need to take a sack, I’m willing to do that. But yeah, just continue to play within the system, within the game – and we’ll continue to play solid as an offense.”
Williams’ comments were certainly bizarre and must have resulted from Darnold’s lackluster performance before joining the Vikings. Otherwise, the remark was a bit unfair to Darnold. Such is life.
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Dustin Baker is a political scientist who graduated from the University of Minnesota in 2007. Subscribe to his daily YouTube Channel, VikesNow. The show features guests, analysis, and opinion on all things related to the purple team, with 4-7 episodes per week. His Vikings obsession dates back to 1996. Listed guilty pleasures: Peanut Butter Ice Cream, ‘The Sopranos,’ Basset Hounds, and The Doors (the band). He follows the NBA as closely as the NFL.
All statistics provided by Pro Football Reference / Stathead; all contractual information provided by OverTheCap.com.
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