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The Jets passing game got off to a solid start, but this wasn’t necessarily a harbinger of things to come. Here is Dan’s 750-word breakdown of Mark Sanchez performance against the Washington Redskins.
On their first offensive play, Wayne Hunter reported as an extra lineman/tight end, so Schotty attempted to catch the Redskins off-guard, and called a play-action pass, a quick slant on the right side to Braylon Edwards that the receiver took for 15 yards.
On the Jets second passing play, the Jets did the same thing. Hunter reported into the game, and Schotty called a play-action pass. It was on a second-and-two, so with the Redskins probably thinking run, the Jets threw to Jerricho Cotchery on the right side for a gain of 10. The Jets did a good job of taking advantage of a mismatch on this play. Safety Reid Doughty was on Cotchery.
The first drive ended with a dud. Sanchez was sacked by DE Adam Carricker for a loss of two. A blitzer, London Fletcher, wasn’t picked up, and when Sanchez stepped up to avoid him, and ran into the arms of Carriker. The drive ended with Sanchez throwing a poor pass to LaDainian Tomlinson in the right flat and it was nearly picked off by DeAngelo Hall. Tomlinson on Hall isn’t a matchup that favors the Jets. He’s a very talented corner. Tomlinson on a linebacker or safety is a different story. The Jets kicked a field goal to end this nine-play, 49-yard drive.
The second possession started out well, with a 43-yard run by Tomlinson, but not much doing after that. It ended with two incomplete passes. The first one was down the left seam to speedy tight end Jeff Cumberland. The throw was a little off target, not terrible, and the tight end couldn’t come down with it. The drive ended with a pass on the short right side off target to Santonio Holmes. These two still aren’t on the same page. Holmes is still learning the system and they haven’t had a load of practice time together.
On the Jets third possession, the Jets had a three-and-out, including an incomplete pass down the deep left side to Edwards.
But the Jets got the ball back immediate after a fumbled punt, and on the second play, Sanchez threw a pass on the short right side to Braylon Edwards, and the receiver did some good after the catch running to turn it into a sixteen yard gain. Two plays later, Sanchez threw a pass into double coverage (CB Carlos Rogers and S Laron Landry) in the middle of the end zone to Cotchery, and he’s lucky it wasn’t picked off. But on the next play, he wasn’t so lucky. He threw into double coverage again (LB Rocky McIntosh and Hall) to Dustin Keller, and it was picked off by Hall. Mark – Hall on Keller is a matchup that favors the Redskins – stay away.
Late in the second quarter, on the first offensive play after a safety, Sanchez threw a pass on the short left side to Holmes, and he made a great move and was off to the races, but after gaining 23 yards, he was stripped by CB Phillip Buchanon, and the Redskins recovered. The Jets would have had the ball on the Redskins 34-yard-line after this play, and would have been in field goal range.
Sanchez led the Jets on a 15-play, 72-yard touchdown drive that started in the third quarter and ended in the fourth. He did some terrific work with Keller on this possession. But it has to be pointed out that it was the Jets starting offense against the Redskins second-team defense (though Albert Haynesworth played a little).
Keller did a very good job on this possession of avoiding pass rushers to create extra time. Like when he avoided a Haynesowrth rush up the middle, rolled right, and hit Keller for a gain of 10. One play where he wasn’t able to avoid the defender was on an incompete pass where Kedric Golston beat Vlad Ducasse and the defensive end buried the quarterback into the turf. The Jets got a scare. He got up holding his shoulder. He bounced back to hit Cotchery on a third-and-10 for ten yards to keep the drive going.
He wrapped up the drive with a short pass over the middle to Keller, who made LB Perry Riley miss, and got into the end zone.
The most impressive part of this drive was Sanchez keeping the chains moving on three third down conversions.
Mark Brunell came up in for two non-descript fourth quarter possessions.