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Cortland – Time for some Whispers and observations from the Jets-Lions game written by JC publisher Dan Leberfeld. Don’t miss out. Sign-up now . . .
You know was particularly troubling about Mark Sanchez’s Pick Six to DE Ziggy Ansah.
The player who read Mark’s eyes, and burned Sanchez on that play, is pretty new to the sport.
Ansah is from the African country of Ghana. He left his homeland to go to BYU on an academic scholarship, participated in track at the school, before somebody suggested he try football in 2010.
He has “green instincts” as one personnel evaluator put it. The same person added, “he will need simple assignments.”
So when you throw a Pick Six to a defensive end who is still learning the sport, still developing instincts, that is quite an indictment of how bad you bird-dogged the pass . . .
While the Pick Six was inexcusable, I will say one small thing in Sanchez’s defense on this play. The player who he was attempting to throw the screen to, FB Tommy Bohanon, while attempting to maneuver through the trash on the line, to get in a position to catch the pass, was tackled by defensive tackle C.J. Mosley, a former Jet.
This should have been a penalty.
But with that being said, with Bohanon on the ground, and nowhere in Mark’s sight, who was he throwing to? . . .
And then on the second series, Sanchez nearly threw another Pick Six to S Glover Quin. Sanchez threw too far out in front of Kellen Winslow on the short right side, it went off his hands and into the hands of Quin. But Winslow did a nice job of playing defense to break it up. If Quin had caught it, and got by Winslow, he would have had a Pick Six.
Think about the ramifications of that.
How on earth could the Jets sell to the players on the team, or their fans, Mark Sanchez as their quarterback, throwing Two Pick Six’s in the first quarter of the first preseason game, coming off 52 turnovers the last two season? That would have been tough . . .
On the third drive, Sanchez led the Jets down the field on an 80-yard touchdown, to save face somewhat.
He had a pair of 24-yard strikes, first to Winslow down the left sideline, and then Jeremy Kerley over the middle. Then he wrapped things up with a 26-yard touchdown strike to Jeff Cumberland down the right seam.
The Jets benefited a great deal by a blown coverage by LB Travis Lewis on the TD pass. But still, it was a nice throw by Sanchez.
I will tell you what, this drive was a perfect example of how lethal the Jets tight end combination of Winslow and Cumberland can be.
They are both tremendous athletes for the position, both with big-play ability . . .
I definitely overrated the Jets backup offensive line the other day. They weren’t very good in this game, just ask Greg McElroy, who was constantly running for his life.
I would say McElroy had the play of the day on offense. About to get sacked by DT Jimmy Saddler-McQueen, he somehow spun away from the defensive tackle, stepped up, and hit Zach Rogers on a crossing route, and the receiver took the pass in for a touchdown . . .
We knew the match-up between the Jets’ journeymen guards Stephen Peterman and Willie Colon vs. defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley, could be a problem, and it was. First Peterman held Fairley, and then Colon held Suh.
The Jets could really use Brian Winters to step up and grab one of the guard jobs. It’s okay to start one journeyman guard who is a little worn down, but not two . . .
It’s never good for a player to get hurt, and hopefully for Geno Smith’s sake he heals fast, but some in the media are overreacting to this injury, like the Jets’ sky is falling.
“The first one was a recurring nightmare, a Deja Boo moment Jets Nation has come to expect from Mark Sanchez, a panic-stricken pick-six on a screen pass while backpedaling away from an angry Lions predator on his first series,” wrote a columnist in the New York Post.
“The second nightmare was far worse.
“Geno Smith, starting his fourth series early in the third quarter, scrambled out of the pocket to his left, trying to be Colin Kaepernick maybe. He made a sharp cut and slipped on the turf and rolled the ankle.”
How is an injury to an unproven quarterback, with a ton to learn, having a so-so camp, a “nightmare?”
Once again, I want to re-iterate, I don’t wish injuries on anyone, and I wish Smith a speedy recovery.
But to say losing a second-round rookie quarterback, who needs to learn how to read defenses better, and get rid of the ball faster, is a “nightmare,” is hyperbole in my opinion . . .
August 10, 2013
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