Jets' Sanchez responding to frenzied, pass-happy pace
Mark Sanchez sometimes refers to himself as a point guard, instead of a quarterback. Maybe he's onto something, because he's at his best when the Jets are in the football equivalent of a fast break.
The Jets' two touchdown drives in their thrilling win over Dallas on Sunday night took 2:39 and 2:54 of game time, as both drives came on the hurry-up with plenty of no-huddle mixed in. Those drives covered 87 and 84 yards, accounting for 161 of the Jets' 360 yards of total offense, meaning the Jets managed only 199 yards in the other 20:34 they possessed the ball.
Those scoring drives came in the second and fourth quarters, which is nothing new for the Sanchez-led Jets. They scored their most points (127) in games last season in the second quarter, and their second-best quarter was the fourth, in which they tallied 105.
Certainly it would be impractical to use the hurry-up all game long, but maybe Ryan needs to get out of his defensive mode a bit and let offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and Sanchez go up-tempo more often, especially early in halves. For the most part, the Jets only use it for two-minute drills or when they are trailing by more than one score in the fourth quarter.
"You could be right," Ryan said when a reporter suggested more hurry-up. "Sometimes, it's a feeling-out process. You go into a game, obviously we thought we were going to run the ball more than we did (Sunday) night, but that never happened. You have to give credit to my brother (Rob Ryan) and to Dallas. They kind of took that run away from us, so we kind of had to make adjustments.
"When we went to that no-huddle" in the first half, Ryan added, "we kind of got them on their heels a little bit, and I thought we gained some momentum."
In the hurry-up, the Jets don't use a fullback, so any runs are usually inside handoffs to LaDainian Tomlinson, who gets most of the work as the single back in the hurry-up. Of Tomlinson's 89 yards from scrimmage against Dallas, 62 came on those touchdown drives. And Sanchez seems much more comfortable than in more conventional sets, and his performance shows that.
But the defensive-minded Ryan still seems reluctant to use the no-huddle on the opening possession, despite the fact the Jets haven't scored an offensive touchdown in the first quarter of the last 16 games, including playoffs.
"As far as starting out in it," Ryan said, "we think we're an excellent running football team. I think if you get into that no-huddle, I think you're more of a passing attack than we probably want to be."
Yet, Ryan added, "I think Mark has done a great job in those no-huddle attacks."
Which is why he should get to do it more often.
SERIES HISTORY
Ninth regular-season meeting. Jaguars lead series, 6-2. Jacksonville has won three straight in the series, but this is only the second meeting since the beginning of the 2007 season. In the only previous game during that span, Jacksonville won 24-22 on Nov. 15, 2009. Maurice Jones-Drew had 123 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries. For the Jets, Mark Sanchez was 16-for-30 for 212 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. Josh Scobee's 21-yard field goal as time expired was the difference.
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