DETROIT — Sam Darnold’s slow, lonely walk began on the 25-yard line as pandemonium unfolded behind him. He glanced quickly at the scoreboard. He bowed his head. He cursed. He would not dare remove his helmet.
All summer, a growing legion of Darnold supporters had touted the 21-year-old’s uncommon impassivity. He learned quickly from mistakes and refused to be consumed by expectations or pressure. If anyone could handle the task of being the first rookie quarterback to make his debut on Monday Night Football, they said, it was Darnold.
And in four seconds, he would put that theory in serious doubt. He joined Brett Favre and Jameis Winston on perhaps football’s most ignominious list: the only players to throw an interception returned for a touchdown on their first career pass attempt.
“Can’t get much worse,” Darnold said he told himself. Jets fans had to wonder.
They had seen so many promising quarterback careers crash and burn in Joe Namath’s 50-year wake. The expectation is that calamity is always just around the corner.
Darnold took it a different way. And just like that, all his nerves were gone.
In all facets — offense, defense, and special teams — the Jets rallied around the rookie in a 48-17 rout of the Lions at Ford Field to start the season with a road win for the first time since 2009. The final tally set a franchise record for most points scored on the road.
Most of the scoring came during a 31-point third quarter that featured a 21-yard touchdown pass by Darnold, a 36-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker Darron Lee and a 78-yard punt return for a score by Andre Roberts.
By the end of it, Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, significantly hobbled after a lineman appeared to kick him in the left knee in the second quarter, looked battered and flummoxed. He threw four interceptions (his backup, Matt Cassel, would add a fifth) to an aggressive Jets defense that would allow just 39 yards on the ground.
Lee’s touchdown return — one of two interceptions for the second-year linebacker — was the team’s first defensive score since 2013.
He said afterward that he had anticipated the play, indicating that the Lions were perhaps tipping off their routes.
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