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The Jets passing game was dysfunction against Baltimore for some reason. Let’s put it under the microscope with an 769 word breakdown of Mark Sanchez against the Ravens.
For Mark Sanchez to throw for 74 yards against secondary that had two starters out, including Ed Reed, is ridiculous.
10-21 and a 56.4 quarterback rating against journeymen cornerbacks Fabian Washington and Chris Carr? Are you kidding?
Dustin Keller – two catches for 13 yards with Tom Zbikowski at safety for Reed? Unacceptable.
None of this makes any sense. In the first game of the year, you should have the mother of all game plans. On offense, the Jets didn’t.
The first play-call was a reverse to Braylon Edwards, a very good receiver, but he’s a big guy, not overly quick. How is a reverse a good play for him? It gained four yards, so it wasn’t awful, but was a little too cute.
On the second play, Sanchez throws a swing pass in the left flat to Shonn Greene, and he takes it for nine yards, and then fumbles out of bounds. But then it as three-and-out, with the possession wrapping up with a pair of incomplete passes.
First he threw to Edwards down the right sideline. Edwards really wasn’t open with Carr in tight coverage. Then Sanchez was off target on an intermediate pass on the right hashmark to Dustin Keller who had LB Tavares Gooden beat on the play. The pass was too far out in front.
The second possession was a three-and-out and a field goal after a turnover. Sanchez actually did a pretty good job on a second down pass. With Haloti Ngata bearing down on him, he pumped fake, make the defensive end jump, ducked under him, and hit Keller for a gain of four on the right side. But the drive ended with an imcomplete pass on the right side to Edwards.
On the Jets third possession, the passing highlight of this set was a five-yard dump to Tony Richardson in the middle that gained five yards. Sanchez truly was Captain Checkdown in this game. That is the nickname Trent Edwards was given in Buffalo.
Early in the second quarter Sanchez had his most impressive pass of the game, a 33-yard strike to Dustin Keller down the deep right side, but it was called back do to an illegal shift on Edwards. Then on the next play, the three-ring circus continued when Sanchez was forced to call a timeout because of confusion over the play call. The Jets benefitted a great deal on this drive by a long Jim Leonhard punt return, and a horse-collar penalty on the Ravens, and this helped put them in field goal range more than anything the offense did.
At the end of the first half, the Jets disorganization on offense continued. With six second left, the Jets were called for 12 men on the field.
The Jets first possession of the second half was underwhelming and predictable.
It started off with a dump pass to LT on the left side. Fair enough, but then to follow that up with a dump pass on the right side to LT, when he wasn’t open, lacked imagination. Granted, I’m sure the second one wasn’t the play call, but Sanchez relied on dumping to his back way often, especially against a banged up secondary. The possession ended with an incomplete pass down the right sideline to Jerricho Cotchery. Can somebody explain to me why B-Schotty thinks it’s a good idea to call deep passes for 4.6 J-Co, who is a heck of a short-to-intermediate receiver? So once again, the Jets had a three-and-out.
The Jets passing attack was do bad in this game, that the 13-yard completion to J-C0, on the last play of the third quarter, on the right side, seemed like a big play.
Early in the fourth quarter, another three-and-out for the Jets, but thanks to great field position because of the defense, and a Leonhard 22-yard punt return, they managed a field goal.
In the middle of the fourth, the Jets had a four-and-out (LT had an 18-yard run on first down). Shonn Greene dropped a wide open pass in the right flat.
The last possession started with another dump to LT, but this one wasn’t bad, it gained nine yards. Also, Braylon Edwards had his first reception of the game, with :57 seconds left, a gain of nine. Then there were three incompletions in a row to Tomlinson, Keller, and Cotchery. And then a nine-yard pass to Dustin Keller on a fourth-and-ten to end the game.
An embarrassing performance for the passing game.
