Content available exclusively for subscribers
New Jersey – Let’s take a closer look at what Mark Sanchez did in St. Louis, and also where he is at as a quarterback at this stage of the game.
Chaz Schilens played very well for the Jets passing attack in St. Louis, and should be playing a lot more than Stephen Hill, but sometimes Rex likes to play high draft picks too much before they are truly ready. Why? You will have to ask him.
Schilens had a nice grab on the first drive – an eight-yard reception on a quick slant. It was not an easy grab.
The Jets only touchdown pass was also to Schilens, a 25-yard grab after the Jets got a short field following a Mo Wilkerson strip sack that was recovered by Bart Scott.
I don’t want to take away from the success on this play, but being brutally honest, this was an easy play and throw for Mark Sanchez.
It was successful, so Sanchez deserves credit for that, but this was a play I always called playing football in the school-yard – square out, pump fake and go. I’m sure many of you did as well.
This play is particularly effective in the NFL against rookie corners who often fall for it, and Trumaine Johnson, a raw defensive back out of 1-AA Montana, fell for it hit hook, line and sinker.
To his credit, Sanchez is very good at pump fakes.
Schilens got way behind Johnson for the touchdown. This was an easy one-read play for the quaterback, and it worked out very well.
Sanchez isn’t great at going through his reads, so the best second read throws are designed to go to the second read. A perfect example was the 18-yard catch and run by Konrad Reuland that set-up, a five-yard TD run by Bilal Powell.
Sanchez looked to his right with no intention of throwing there, and Rueland slipped off the line into the left flat, Sanchez hit him, and he was off to the races. This was a great call by Tony Sparano that really caught the Rams by surprise because Reuland almost always stays in.
The third big pass play by Sanchez was a 32-yard catch-and-run to Jeremy Kerley. This was also an effective pump fake throw.
These were three excellent calls by Sparano that didn’t involve a lot of reading, and all three worked out swimmingly well.
This game was the perfect formula for Sanchez – good running game, solid defense and he throws just 20 passes – similar to the Colts game.
Jeff Fisher was saying that the Jets reversed game-plans on them. That is what Fisher wanted to do with Sam Bradford – a large dose of Stephen Jackson, but they fell behind and had to get away from that. Though people in St. Louis, fans and reporters, were very critical of Brian Schottenheimer for not calling more runs (before the game got out of hand) because the Jets were having issues dealing with Jackson.
I don’t mean to be a killjoy about the Sanchez performance, but honestly, we need to be cognizant that this ideal Sanchez blueprint isn’t going to be available for the Jets every week.
Too often, when it’s not there, when quarterback utopia as I call it, isn’t available for Sanchez, he isn’t very good at filling the void.
And honestly, if you make the kind of money Sanchez does ($20.5 million guaranteed the next two years), that shouldn’t be game manager money.
Greg McElroy (or someone like Matt Moore), could get that done for the league minimum.
The bottom line is this – people shouldn’t get too far ahead of themselves about Sanchez turning things around with his performance in St. Louis.
This game was the best case scenario for him.
The Jets have a must-win game on Thursday against New England. Facing Tom Brady (even without Rob Gronkowski), Sanchez is going to need to do more than he did in St. Louis. Do you really think Brady is going to put up 14 points, with seven coming in garbage time?
Unlikely.
So to me, Thursday will be a much better litmus test for what the Jets have in Sanchez than what we saw in the Edward Jones Dome.