For the last several weeks of average play, in other words not the bills/Saints games. Sanchez has played much better in the second half, and been less iffy. He has played better in the second half of games, and he has lead us back from behind to be in a postion to win 3 of the 5 games, only to see the defense give up 2 (Miami in Miami, and the Jags yesterday) and the special Teams give up another. In the first half he has been inconsistent, and clearly nervous. He seems to be indecisive, and not sure when to let it fly. As a result he is late on several of his throws and its held us back early in games. Coming out in the second half, he seems more relaxed and at ease, and pretty much just seems to say "who gives a damn, can't play any worse, lets go kick some ass!" He relaxes and he starts making some throws, and gets comfortable. In realizing this, I am curious, why don't we play defense more often on the first posession of the game? Plus in my eyes, the firs possession of the second half is far more valuable to have. If you score right before the half, or get a big stop right before, and then you come out and put points on the board, it gives you a big momentum boost for the second half. In the first half, no momentum has been established and if you score on the first possession it won't be as big a boost. Add to that the fact that Mark is showing himself to be a second half guy, as far as settling down and it seems this should be their recipe should be to get that extra possesion when Mark is at his best. Also with our generally great defense(7/9 games) it makes sense to set the tone that way. I believe that so far at least 5 times we have started with the ball. Yes i do realize if we lose the toss the other team has the option of taking the ball at the half, but it just seems odd to me that we would lose the toss 5 times, and have the coach choose that every time.
it has to be the adjustments made during halftime. He also calms down and gets into some sort of rhythm. the rest I don't know.
which is kind of my point. Whatever causes him to relax after the half is good. But we need to find a way to organize the offense and run 95% of the first half (provided it is going anywhere) and then in the second half come out slinging the rock.
The game plan in first bhalves has been more conservative, once they loosen things up(outside of Buf) he has tended toplay well and that usually happens in 2nd halves when we need him to step up b/c of the conservative 1st halves. As far as going on D the first possession, that is the plan but there is a coin toss and the opponent has been winning and kicking off. There's not much we can do about that. I'm very confident we'd kick oiff to start the game every week if we had the chance.
