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It was another outstanding plan by Brian Schottenheimer in dealing with his young quarterback. The last few games, B-Schotty and his quarterback have found a plan and a groove.
And a great part of Sunday’s plan was making Jerricho Cotchery the focal point of the passing attack.
It was a great idea. It’s pretty simple. If teams are going to double Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes on the outside, go to J-Co, a starting quality receiver, who is now in the #3 role.
And the Jets got this plan going early. On their second offensive play of the game, Sanchez hit J-Co on the short left side. He was being covered by safety Brandon Meriweather. This a matchup that favors the Jets. As Braylon Edwards said after the game, “safeties don’t have the feet to cover Jerricho.” This play agained 16 yards.
Three plays later, Sanchez misfired on a deep out to Cotchery on the right side. It was a bad throw because Cotchery was open, he had nice spacing on safety Eugene Chung, but the QB threw it too wide.
The second series was a three-and-out, including a disastrous screen to LaDainian Tomlinson that lost five yards on the left side. Screens continues to be a weakness for the Jets’ offense, which is perplexing because they have a good offensive line, and LT has great on this play in San Diego.
On the third series, on third-and-five, Sanchez threw a square out to Cotchery on the left side for a gain of six. Cotchery was singled by CB Darius Butler. Remember him. He’s the player the Jets had their way with in the first matchup this year.
This drive ended up stalling, but probably shouldn’t have. There are two plays the Jets would want back from this drive, that both could have been huge.
On the first play of the possession, Holmes was WIDE open on a crossing route, but the throw was off target, impacted by a QB pressure by NT Vince Wilfork. Then the drive ended with an incomplete pass down the deep left seam to Keller. It seemed like Keller short-armed the catch attempt to avoid getting crushed. I don’t want to use the expression “alligator arms” on this because he doesn’t have a history of that, and he’s very tough.
The Jets next possession started with another bad incompletion to Keller on a short crossing route. It was low and behind him. But Sanchez bounced back on the next two plays.
On 2nd-and-15 (there was an off-sides penalty on Wayne Hunter), J-Co did a nice job of sitting down inside the zone in the middle, in between linebackers Jarod Mayo and Gary Guyton, and Sanchez hit him for a gain of nine, to set up a more manageable third down. On third down, Sanchez had one of his best plays of the game. Under pressure, he rolled to the left, and improvised with Edwards, motioning him to move towards the left sideline, and he hit Braylon for a gain of 37. On the next play, Sanchez dumped a pass to LT on the left side, and he took it in for a seven-yard touchdown. The Jets did a nice job of taking advantage of a mismatch on this play. LT was covered by Guyton.
Two series later, the Jets took over on a short field after a failed faked punt by New England that resulted in a fumble. Gang Green took advantage.
After a couple of nice runs by LT that got the Jets into the red zone, Sanchez threw an incompletion to Ben Hartsock. This wasn’t a bad throw, but a nice defensive play by LB Rob Ninkovich, who knocked the ball away after his was caught. Then Sanchez threw a quick slant to Edwards on the right side, and the receiver dragged CB Devin McCourty and Meriweather into the end zone with great effort, to make it 14-3.
Early in the third quarter, the Pats scored to make it 14-11, and the momentum felt like it was changing, but Sanchez responded with one of the most important drives of his career, to grab the momentum back. And he got a lot of help from Cotchery.
J-Co found a soft spot in the middle of the zone, and he was wide open, Sanchez hit him with a short pass, and Cotchery was off to the races, gaining 58 yards. Keller was a huge part of this play with a great block down field on S James Sanders that was a key to some of the extra yardage.
Two plays later, Sanchez hit Cotchery on a quick slant for seven yards, once against with a safety on J-Co – Chung.
This drive wrapped up with Sanchez throwing a fade to Holmes for a seven-yard touchdown. Edwards says this was the quarterback’s best throw of the season. This made it 21-14. The Jets scored late after taking over on a short field following a failed onside kick, thanks to a long run by Shonn Greene.
This was the perfect Sanchez game as far as the Jets coaches using him effectively- just 25 throws (completed 16). He got the ball to his playmakers and let them to their thing, and he was buttressed by 120 yards on the ground and a great defense. He got the support he needed and he did his part.
