...and his name is Sanchez. The defense was ferocious and essentially pitched a shutout, but the media has it all wrong. Sanchez played a significant role in the defensive effort by converting all those 3rd downs, enabling the Jets to possess the ball for 2/3 of the game. It's a symbiotic relationship, the defense helps the offense and QB by giving them more time with the ball, and the offense keeps the defense off the field by moving the chain. Simple and obvious, but essentially missing from the Jets repetoire in recent years...until now. It's a formula they can contend with.
I'm not very used to seeing the Jets convert 3rd downs. 3rd and long with Pennington under center was impossible.
Which was weird, because you'd think he's be a good QB for the quick slants, which work almost perfectly on 3rd and 7 or less. Last year, I don't know if anyone realized, but on 3rds and medium, we ran the exact same play every time. 2 wide to the right, Baker would flex to the slot, and he'd run a quick swing getting underneath the wideouts. Worked like a charm.
imagine an offense that can punt the ball and let the defense stop the other team, and then the offense takes 9 minutes off the clock with a big score, and then hands it back to the defense that stops the offense again and hands it back our offense which scores again. its called an elite team. Down the road, that day may come.
I remember when the Jets had a 12th guy on defense. The refs called a penalty for too many men in the huddle.
and should not have been a penalty because Sanchez Left the huddle and re-entered after the guy left. I believe the rule is you can't 'break the huddle' w/12. I was actually impressed to see Sanchez know this and attempt to avoid the penalty. There were a few other instances where he showed that he knew exactly what was happening on the field. He never once looked "Lost" or as if the moment was too big. Impressive for a rookie!