CHICAGO _ Concern barged back into the big city Monday morning. The frustration of an error-filled home loss was still raw. The highly touted, young quarterback had struggled against a superior opponent.
Multiple turnovers. Too many missed throws.
Naturally, the line for the megaphone exploded with agitated fans and alarmed analysts all wanting to offer a complaint. Or a diagnosis on what went wrong. Or a verdict in a trial that barely has passed the opening statements.
Was this latest Sunday snapshot another warning sign of a player ill-equipped to climb the NFL mountain? Or was it simply a 3{-hour illumination of a bumpy growth process?
The head coach, of course, came to the kid's defense.
"We struggled running the ball," the coach said. "At times we had trouble protecting him. And at times we had trouble getting the ball downfield."
Yes, Chicago. You have company.
These very things were happening in New York this week, with Jets rookie Sam Darnold able to empathize easily with Bears quarterback Mitch Trubisky. The two passers will return to the stage Sunday at Soldier Field _ against one another and in similar spots.
Both need to overcome sloppy performances in disappointing defeats. Both are trying to do so with fan bases eager for them to become surefire All-Pros by Thanksgiving and fretting at each blast of turbulence.
Darnold woke up Monday with the New York tabloids trumpeting his struggles. Six weeks after he had been hailed for igniting a 48-17 blowout of the Lions in the season opener, Darnold was pictured on the back of the New York Post with his chin cemented to his chest. The headline: "The Big Chill: Darnold's frigid effort cools off surging Jets."
That was the back-page summary of a loss in which the rookie completed only 40.5 percent of his passes while being intercepted three times.
On talk radio Monday, WFAN host Boomer Esiason, an NFL quarterback for 14 years himself, folded it all into the proper perspective.
"This is part of the process of being an NFL quarterback," Esiason said. "You go to work and you feel like crap today. You probably got no sleep last night. You feel like crap. You got your ass beat. You got the realization that you have not conquered anything just yet. And you just have to fight your way through it.
"This is truly, truly what determines whether or not you can become an NFL quarterback. It's picking yourself up off the mat and going out there and playing again next week."
Easy enough. But how exactly?
