Sam Darnold left with shoulder injury after being slammed to turf (Video)

Joe Flacco is back in the NFL and back playing meaningful football

Sam Darnold made one of the more super-human touchdown runs you’ll see in the NFL this season, let alone from him, earlier in the game. In what may be the Jets last-ditch effort to save Adam Gase’s job as the team is facing an 0-4 start, Darnold went down with a shoulder injury in the fourth quarter.

So, our quarterback matchup (for now) is Flacco against Mark Rypien. That’s Thursday Night Football at its best.

Darnold missed Lawrence Cager on a slant on that play-action pass play, and it resulted in Alexander Johnson slamming him to the turf. Whether we want to criticize the officiating for Johnson’s hit isn’t the point, though, as any extended absence from Darnold would result in a bad team getting remarkably worse.

Such a reality is something the Broncos are already dealing with. They lost Drew Lock in Week 2 against the Pittsburgh Steelers on a similar play. Bud Dupree wasn’t flagged on that play, either, despite knocking Lock into the previous week.

Troy Aikman stated that it reminded him of when he broke his collarbone. Thankfully, Darnold did return the game. On his first play back, Darnold was greeted with a sack on a third-and-five. Yikes.