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Here is the fifth and final part of Dan’s Review of Mark Sanchez. We pick things up in the fourth quarter, and also look into the future . . .
The Jets got the ball back with 2:32 left, trailing 19-10, and the drive almost ended on the first play of the possession. On first down, Sanchez had yet another pass tipped, and it was caught by Matt Slauson, who fumbled when he hit the ground, and Jason Taylor returned it for a touchdown. The fumble was overturned because it was caused by the ground.
Some people wondered when Sanchez was coming out in the draft, if he’d have this problem (tipped passes) because he’s not a particularly tall quarterback. It’s been a problem, especially this season.
But we aren’t going to blame it on his height. Drew Brees is 6-0 and he’s a very effective QB who doesn’t have a lot of passes blocked. You are supposed to throw into passing lanes between linemen, not over them.
The biggest reasons for Sanchez’s getting so many passes tipped is that he telegraphs his passes (so the defensive linemen can easily time their jump) and also, he isn’t following through on some of his passes.
The Jets took advantage of their second life on this drive. On the Jets’ second play of this possesson, Sanchez hit Plaxico Burress for a gain of 29 over the middle.
Then Sanchez hit Kerley with a quick strike on the short left side, and the elusive rookie took it for 13 yeards, and did a nice job of getting out of bounds to stop the clock. He was able to get out of bounds by breaking a tackle attempt by CB Sean Smith. After this, Sanchez threw an out on the left side to Burress that gained 13, and followed that with a pass on the short right side to LT that gained nine yards.
On the next play, Sanchez wrapped up the drive with a TD strike to Patrick Turner for a touchdown in the middle of the end zone, to make it 19-17.
The Jets never got the ball back.
This was the drive where Santonio Holmes was thrown out of the huddle. That turned out to be a pretty good decision, considering his replacement, Turner, scored the touchdown.
Before we get back to Sanchez to wrap this up, let’s talk about Turner. He’s clearly ready to take over for Plaxico Burress as the team’s big receiver. He’s made good strides this year, and has a great attitude. He’s a diligent worker. And he has very good chemistry with Sanchez, since they played at USC together.
As for the Holmes mess, in the huddle, and during the week when he blew off a Sanchez-called passing game meeting, it’s pretty clearly, he’s fed up with the quarterback.
I’m not condoning his action, but he mentally checked out because he was so underutilized by a quarterback who became enamored of check-downs late in the year.
The Jets made a huge mistake giving the mercurial Holmes $23.5 guaranteed (as we pointed out late last week, before the Miami debacle).
Here is the bottom line with Sanchez – this substandard play can’t be sloughed off next season with the coach continually covering for him. The coach will lose the team if he does that. Sanchez needs to be on a short leash next year. If his wildly inconsistent play from 2011, continues into 2012, the coach needs to replace him. There is no more messing around, no more worrying about his feelings and his contract.
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