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The third quarter wasn’t a great one for Mark Sanchez. Let’s take a look.
The first possession of the second half was ugly.
It started off with a Matt Mulligan false start on the first play.
Then on first-and-15, Sanchez and Plaxico Burress weren’t on the same page. Sanchez threw an out to Burress, but he didn’t cut out.
On the next play, Sanchez didn’t get the play off in time, and the Jets were called for a delay of game penalty.
Then, on second-and-20, Sanchez stepped up on the pocket to avoid OLB Ryan Kerrigan, and threw to Burress on the deep left side, and it wasn’t even close. On third-and-20, Sanchez threw short to Patrick Turner for six yards, way short of the first down. This disastrous drive was finally over.
The Jets second possession of the second half was a three-and-out.
On a managable third-and-three, Sanchez overthrew Santonio Holmes on the right side. Maybe he was throwing it away. Rex can only hope, otherwise, it was a very poor pass.
On the Jets third drive of the second half, they marched down the field – 14 yards on seven plays. Sorry for the sarcasm. This set up a 51-yard field goal by Nick Folk.
In defense of Sanchez, I will say this. There were two PD’s at the end of the aformentioned possession that were very good plays by Redskins defensive backs.
On a pass to Holmes down the deep right side, CB Josh Wilson jarred the ball lose at the last second. And then on the play right before the field goal, S Reed Doughty knocked away a pass to Dustin Keller on the short left side. The pass was a little low, but catchable, and Doughty made a nice play on the ball.
The Jets next possession, after a Roy Helu fumble, the Jets went three-and-out, and then missed a 40-yard field goal.
On the first play of a late third quarter possesion, Sanchez was nearly picked off over the middle by CB DeAngelo Hall. For some reason Sanchez tried to finesse a pass over the middle, instead of firing the football. This wasn’t a good idea, and the Jets are lucky it wasn’t intercepted.
The Jets were also called for an illegal formation on this drive.
This possession was a clunker, and the only reason it wasn’t a three-and-out was due to a penalty on Kevin Barnes for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Sanchez.
This was a third quarter the Jets soon forget.
The Jets poor third quarter carried over to the first possession of the fourth quarter. This drive was another three-and-out and it included an overthrow to an open Keller down the deep middle.
The Jets got really good field position on the next drive thanks to a nice job by TE/FB Josh Baker on a short kickoff that he returned 29 yards, allowing the Jets to take over at mid-field.
Sanchez did a nice job on third-and-four dumping to Green for a gain of 10. Two plays later, Sanchez hit Holmes for a 30-yard TD. This turned out to be the game-winning touchdown.
Sanchez and Holmes did some great work on this play – they faked a square in, Wilson bit on it, and Holmes got behind him for the touchdown.
The Jets scored again, but that wasn’t QB-related. It was based on a fumble and then a Greene TD run.
Sanchez was inconsistent in this game, but did enough for the Jets to win.
The Redskins do have a very good defense, and that was a factor in the Jets offensive struggles.
We will take a look at the Jets blocking from this game by 9 pm this evening.