Helton peered into Sam Darnold’s face mask. “You can always see it in a quarterback’s eyes,” Helton said. “They’re either deer-in-the-headlights or they look at you like it’s just a practice. He’s always looked like, ‘Coach, don’t worry ...

So it would have been reasonable for outside observers to cringe at Sam Darnold's wild flip of the ball toward running back Aaron Jones Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, not only because it threatened to turn a busted play into a massive turnover,

When the schedule is loaded with tough games at the start of the schedule, it sends a message to the team that it must be ready to compete hard as the season gets