Stephen A. Smith is completely wrong when he criticizes Sam Darnold

Stephen A. Smith still isn’t sold on Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold. But not for any real reason.

Literally not for any real reason. Smith’s recent criticism of Darnold required factual inaccuracies.

ON ESPN’s First recording On Thursday, Smith, host Molly Qerim and analysts Booger McFarland and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo discussed which team they have more confidence in: the Vikings and Detroit Lions, who meet Sunday night in a game that will decide the top seeds will be in NFC. That’s when Smith targeted Darnold for something he had already done.

“He deserves recognition,” Smith said of Darnold. “We know he had an outstanding season, et cetera, et cetera. The man hasn’t thrown for 300 yards since November 24th against Chicago. I’ll just throw it out there. I mean, we’re acting like this is the second coming of Dan Marino. … All I’m saying is: Can we put the brakes on?”

Maybe Darnold isn’t Dan Marino’s successor, but he actually threw for 300 yards just this week. Darnold threw for 377 yards in Sunday’s win over the Green Bay Packers. Maybe Smith meant to say that this was the first time he had thrown for 300 yards since beating the Bears on November 24th? However, that wouldn’t be correct either. Darnold also threw for 347 yards — not to mention five touchdown passes — in a win over the Atlanta Falcons on Dec. 8.

Darnold will have another opportunity to prove Smith wrong on Sunday Night Football in the biggest regular season game in recent memory against the Lions. Sunday night’s kickoff at Ford Field in Detroit is scheduled for 7:20 p.m