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It’s time to wrap up our review of Mark Sanchez’s performance, in the Jets 28-24 win over Buffalo. Let’s get things underway . . .
Late in the first half, the Jets took over on a short field after a squib kick by Dave Raynor didn’t work out very well, and the Jets cashed in with a touchdown. And on top of taking over on a short field (Buffalo’s 36), they were helped by a personnel foul penalty on NT Marcel Dareus for an illegal hit on Sanchez.
The penalty came on the first play of the drive. On the play, Sanchez dumped to Shonn Greene on the short right side, and the runner did a good job slipping through a tackle to trickle forward a few yards to make it a seven-yard gain. This was the play that Dareus got flagged on.
Two plays later, Sanchez missed on a skinny post to Patrick Turner down the left side. Turner had a step on rookie Justin Rogers, but Sanchez overthrew him – he didn’t put enough air under the ball.
On the next play, the Jets got a big break, when Buffalo blew the coverage, and Plaxico Burress was wide open in the middle of the end zone.
The Bills were playing without the leader of their secondary, safety George “The Governor” Wilson, and the player replacing him, rookie D’Norris Searcy, seemed to blow the coverage.
The Jets scored on their first possession of the third quarter, and this drive was all about Keller.
After four running plays to start the drive, Sanchez hit Keller down the deep right side
for a gain of 22. Keller ran a great route on this play with a sharp cut from the middle to the right sideline.
On the next play, the Jets executed a screen perfectly to the left side, and Joe McKnight took it for 13 yards.
Then two plays later, Sanchez hit Keller over the short middle, and the TE did some good running after the catch, and took it into the end zone. The play gained 18 yards. Keller did a nice job of breaking a tackle attempt by Searcy in the middle of the play. Sanchez did a good job of delivering the pass, lofting it over a linebacker, and in front of Searcy.
The next two possessions were three-and-outs. On the first of these two drives, Sanchez nearly threw a pick on pass down field to Turner into double coverage.
On the final play of the second of these three-and-outs, the possession ended with Holmes heading up field, and Sanchez threw an out to him. They weren’t on the same page, but it might have been the receiver that messed up. He had a rep for running the wrong routes on occasion in Pittsburgh.
Then with a little under six minutes left, the Jet began a drive that ended in a touchdown. Sanchez took the Jets 82 yards on 12 plays. The pass protection was superb on this drive.
Burress made two huge plays on this drive. In the middle of this possession, on a second-and-eight, Burress beat Florence on an out route, and did a nice job of getting both feet in-bounds, and gained 14 yards on the left sideline.
Then, right after the two-minute warning, on third-and-11, Sanchez lofted a pass down the left sideline, and Burress made a circus catch for a gain of 18. The Jets had a mismatch on this play, with Searcy on the wide receiver.
Another big third down play on this drive as 12-yard gain to Turner on a third-and-eight.
The possession ended with Sanchez rolling right; he did a nice job of looking at Keller in the middle of the end zone, moving one defensive back to the middle, creating more space to hit Holmes for the game winning touchdown on the right side.
The Jets might have dodged a bullet in the middle of this drive when Florence nearly picked off a pass over the middle to Burress.
Sanchez did enough to win, but he stil needs to play better if the Jets want to make a playoff run. 17-35 isn’t good enough against a defense that has been torched recently, and is starting a rookie safety (Searcy), rookie cornerback (Aaron Williams) and a rookie nickel back (Rogers), and has a bad pass rush.