“I’m getting better every day and getting more comfortable in the system every single day,” Howell said. “So it was good to get some live game action with him calling some plays.”
Perhaps Howell just needed to face something other than Brian Flores’ diabolical defense. Even O’Connell suggested that he had not seen that version of Howell until Saturday.
“I thought Sam’s one of those guys that, throughout the early stages of practice, you kept asking yourself, you know, I think we’re going to need to see him in game action, just to get a great feel for kind of what Sam can do,” O’Connell said. “And I thought, you know, there was great examples of that guy that has played, a guy that moved the team, and I was, I was happy with Sam.”
This is a reminder that training camp is a process that takes several weeks during the summer, and decisions shouldn’t be made solely based on interceptions thrown to teammates in practice. It’s all we had to go on until Saturday, and some of the alarms going off about Howell’s camp production as well as compiling lists of possible replacements were foolish.
During the 94-yard drive, Howell led the offense to seven first downs. He had the longest completion of the game when he connected with Jeshaun Jones for 20 yards. Howell didn’t throw a pick on Saturday and had a game he can grow from.
“He’s just going to keep getting better,” said Chandler, who caught three passes from Howell for 20 yards. “I wholeheartedly believe in him and believe in what he can do. So I’m excited for him. I’m excited for his career and future and the best is yet to come.”