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Here is Dan’s 1,002 word breakdown on Mark Sanchez’s performance in the Jets win over New England. Details, details and more details. Don’t miss out. It’s just $7.95 per month to read a truckload of premium articles . . .
Mark Sanchez had one of his better games as a Jet, but things didn’t start that great.
On his first pass of the game, he threw down field to Dustin Keller, down the deep middle. It was a tough pass because he had to float it over linebacker Brandon Spikes, and in front of safety Patrick Chung. The pass ended up sailing high, going off Keller’s hands, and was picked off by Chung. The play ended up getting reversed because, upon further review, the ball hit the ground.
Here is the problem that Sanchez runs into, at times, when throwing to Keller on seam routes. Keller is a terrific player, but he’s only 6-2, on the short side for tight ends. The ideal scenario for these kind of routes, is when you have a 6-4 to 6-6 tight end. It’s a very tough throw to Keller.
After the Jets got the ball back, it turned into a three-and-out. The possession ended with a Sanchez pass to a covered LaDainian Tomlinson on the short right side. Sanchez had a ton of time on this play. He wasn’t rushed, and when he dumped to LT again, it looked a repeat of the Baltimore game was in the offing.
But it turns out that wasn’t the case at all.
On the Jets second possession, Sanchez got things rolling.
On the first third down on the second possession, a third-and-six, Sanchez hit Braylon Edwards on a quick slant for a gain of 13. Edwards beat rookie cornerback Devin McCourty on this play. These are the kind of mismatches that the Jets need to exploit more. On the next play, Sanchez took advantage of another mismatch, Keller on pass rushing linebacker Tully Banta-Cain, and he hit Keller for a gain of 13 on the left hash mark. On the next play, Sanchez hit Edwards on the left sideline on Darius Butler, another inexperienced cornerback, for a gain of 11.
After this, two of the next three plays were passes to Tomlinson on the short right side, the first went for nine yards, and the second for five. The second pass wasn’t a great throw, it was low, and LT made a terrific catch. The drive ended with Sanchez doing something he should have done a lot more before this game – he threw a fade to Edwards, with a man in tight coverage (Butler) and Braylon won the jump ball for a touchdown. You saw last week, on the near blocked field goal, when Edwards jumped over the line, what a fantastic leaper he is. You have to throw to him in traffic more, and let him try to win jump ball. It’s risky, but often worth the risk.
The next Jets possession didn’t amount to anything, with mostly running plays, and it ended with a sack.
The last possession of the first half, started with a pass from Sanchez to David Clowney over the short middle that was so off target, you have to think that somebody made a mistake on this play. On the next two plays, Sanchez connected with Keller. On the first of these passes, Keller made a sensational catch – a one-handed grab for a gain of 12 on the right side. On the next play, Sanchez hit Keller, for a gain of 22 on Chung down the deep middle. After a pass for seven yards to LaDainian Tomlinson over the short middle, Braylon made another spectacular catch, with Butler all over him, a one-handed grab for eight-yards, on the right sideline. The Jets kicked a field goal two plays later.
The Jets first drive of the second half ended with an inaccurate pass from Sanchez to Jerricho Cotchery over the middle. This was a three-and-out. Sanchez was sacked by Gerard Warren to start the half, and was shaken up on the play, so it might have impacted his accuracy two plays later. He hurt his back on the Warren sack.
On the Jets second possession of the second half, which ended in a field goal (10 plays, 80 yards), was a drive dominated by the run, but there was one big pass play that aided this drive a great deal. On a third-and-one, with most of the football world expecting a run, Sanchez ran a bootleg left, and hit a wide open Keller for a gain of 39. This was a brilliant call by Brian Schottenheimer.
On the Jets next possession, Sanchez drove his team on a 70-yard, 10-play touchdown drive. The biggest play of this drive was a 31-yard run by LT. Another play of note was a 21-yard strike to Keller. This was a pretty pass by Sanchez right over the finger tips of Spikes down the deep middle, in an area of the Pats zone that the Jets clearly felt was a good area to exploit. This drive ended with a two-yard touchdown to Cotchery. It was trips left with Edwards, LT and Cotchery, and Cotchery drew the single coverage, and Sanchez hit him, in the back middle of the end zon,e for a touchdown. The Jets went for two here to give them a seven point lead with another jump ball to Edwards, who grabbed it over Butler, in tight coverage. Butler is a slender corner, and not that tall, so Edwards has a major size and strength advantage on the UConn-product.
The Jets final touchdown drive, in the middle of the fourth quarter was run-dominated, as the Jets attempted to milk the clock. There were two pass interference penalties on Butler, on J-Co and the other on Edwards, that added 39 yards to the drive. Sanchez capped the drive with a one-yard touchdown pass to Keller. Once again, this wasn’t a situation where the target got a lot of separation(from McCourty), who was in tight coverage, but the quarterback took a chance and it paid off.
