"Defending Mark Sanchez’s Performance" "3,663 yards, 24 TDs, 13 INTs, 56.1 completion percentage (296 comp., 528 attempts) Is playing quarterback in the New York market the most difficult job in professional sports? Possibly. For starters, until a quarterback wins a championship, he is never good enough. Any quarterback who has ever played in New York already knows that. And if a quarterback has won? Criticism is still never more than one bad game away. Just ask Eli Manning, Phil Simms or Joe Namath. But let’s get back to Sanchez. If someone had told Jets fans at the beginning of this season that he would finish 2011 with the numbers listed above, would they have signed up for it? My guess is yes. Despite the fact that Sanchez absorbed a heavy beating during the first few games — his 14 sacks are tied for the 9th most in the N.F.L. — the mostly impressive numbers listed above represent the pace Sanchez is setting. Through the Jets’ first six games, Sanchez has already thrown for 1,372 yards, with 9 touchdowns and 5 interceptions. And don’t forget the 3-3 Jets have already played games at New England, where the Patriots have won 20 consecutive regular-season home games, and at Baltimore, which is 22-5 since John Harbaugh became coach in 2008. Let’s take a closer look. Want to talk about Sanchez’s 9 touchdown passes so far? If so, you should know that it ranks tied for eight in the N.F.L., with Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger, Philadelphia’s Michael Vick and Tennessee’s Matt Hasselbeck. Eighth out of 32 teams? If you do the math, that ranks in the top quarter of the league. And want to talk of Sanchez’s 5 interceptions in 198 attempts? According to Pro-Football-Reference.com, Sanchez’s interception percentage of 2.5 ranks 12th in the N.F.L. And of the 12 quarterbacks who have more pass attempts, only four — Detroit’s Matthew Stafford, Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, Chicago’s Jay Cutler and Cleveland’s Colt McCoy — have thrown fewer than Sanchez’s five interceptions. In another key statistic, Sanchez is tied for 11th (with Roethlisberger) with 20 completions of 20 or more yards. Sanchez’s biggest and most notable problems have come early in games. The Jets haven’t had a first down in the first quarter since their game at Oakland in Week 3, which was also when they scored their last first-quarter touchdown. That needs to change for the Jets to continue to win games. But Sanchez’s performance has been better than he is being given credit for." http://fifthdown.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/defending-mark-sanchezs-performance/ I don't really need to add anything else except can you imagine what he'd be up to if him and Plax were on the same page or even if Plax were playing to level we had hoped.
It's great to see that.. for all the shit this guy takes, he's really still managing to put up respectable numbers. Imagine if he had a competent Offensive Coordinator who could prepare a game plan to get off to better starts..
What I love is how people forget to mention that we have lost 2 games to the Patriots and Ravens (two very very good teams) at home and we lost a cross country game to the Raiders who are very difficult to beat. 4-2 to start the season would have been ideal but 3-3 was also very realistic and that is what happened. The team will be fine and its a long season. If Mark can learn to start the game the way he finishes it the team will be even better off. And where are the Grantland geniuses now talking about how the dropped receptions are not indicative of the true Mark Sanchez. How many times have a wide receiver dropped a very catch able ball this year? I would also say that He seems to be throwing less into poor coverage.
It's not just about #s, this is what most people fail to realize. His #s were much worse a year ago but he was much better.
The problem is we lost all 3 games in a row. If you spread them out over a course of a season it doesn't look nearly as bad, but because they were back to back to back it put the Jets 2-3 and on a 3 game losing streak
I'm not gonna stick up for the troll but it's kind of true. You can twist stats into a pretzel to make a point. My guess is you could find an equal amount of backwards ass stats that say Sanchez is among the worst in the league. Personally, I can live with Sanchez. He's good enough to win in the NFL, you just gotta live with some of his mistakes.
I still can't stand how people make up excuses that the Jets lost to Baltimore & NE. At the end of the day, if you want to be a Super Bowl team, those are teams you need to beat. You can't call yourself the best, but then say well, we lost to teams that were good. Anyway, Sanchez has been miserable in the first half of games. His best performances have been when the game is on the line. It's too bad he can't always play like that.
I think the change in receivers is having a much bigger effect on Sanchez then anyone in the FO anticipated. Braylon and Mark were on the same page, Braylon's very first game @Miami, him and Mark had an immediate impact. 5 catches 64 yards and a TD, and opened up our run game. Starting this season Mark lost his 2 "Go To" guys and the Plax experiment is just not working out as of yet. Cotchery's body is breaking down so nothing to be done there. Our offense would be vastly improved if we were able to keep Braylon. I was in the boat that Braylon should've been our top receiver priority. Once he got into some trouble that changed but it ended up not turning into a suspension.
I think there are multiple factors for his step back(so far). OL issues- Moore barely practiced in camp and we lost mangold, no running game(b/c of the OL issues) and new WRs. Slowly but surely it's starting to come around, I expect this O will be really good the 2nd half of the season and mark will take off.
I don't wanna turn it into a "I miss Braylon" thread but you're right. I always thought that Braylon was every bit as valuable as Holmes last year. Holmes had those two huge plays in Detroit and Cleveland but Braylon was a gamer. He was solid. Definitely think Sanchez is missing that guy big time.
This is a ridiculous statement. A year ago Sanchez had a solid line in front of him, verging on the best in the NFL with just a minor weakness at LG. He had LaDainian Tomlinson in the middle of a career revitalization at 31, having his best 6 game run in two seasons. The passing game at this point in the season was wildly erratic from game to game with Sanchez either being good or bad, 3 of each. This year Sanchez has been over 85.8 in QB Rating 5 out of 6 games. The only bad game he's had was the disaster in Baltimore when he faced a top 5 front 7 with 3 JAG's or worse on the line in front of him. There is no question that Sanchez is having a better season this year than he did last. The only reason you could get away with saying otherwise is that the overall team talent has degraded around him. Through 6 games last year Sanchez was sacked 9 times. This year it is 14. Through 6 games last year the Jets allowed 535 yards rushing. This year they have allowed 792. Mark Sanchez is having a much better year this year than he did last year. The Jets are not as talented though so he's running around a lot behind the line as the sacks pile up and he's watching the defense get gashed for long drives on a regular basis. That's why you think Mark Sanchez is having a worse season than he did last year.
The problem really seems to be that the Jets can only beat crappy teams, and not easily at that. The Jets have lost to every single team with a winning record that they've faced so far: Baltimore, NE, Oakland. The teams they've beaten have won 3 games total, and two of those teams don't even have decent QBs. Moreover, except for the Jax game, the Jets have struggled offensively. That kind of performance is going to garner criticism, especially for the QB.
Our offensive line isn't the same as it was last year either. He's putting up better numbers with little to no time in the pocket and with new receivers.
I love how people love stats when they confirm their perceptions but completely disregard them when they challenge them. How the hell could you say that he has had a worse performance than last year when his stats are a lot better? What else are we missing other than your analytical insight.
