JETS 9
Sunday's 30-9 meltdown to the Dolphins at MetLife Stadium was a microcosm of what is wrong with this franchise as well as what has to be done to get this team moving in the right direction.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Special Teams was terrible Sunday; the Jets were duped on a surprise onside kick in the first quarter and watched the Dolphins block a punt for a touchdown, the second time this year the Jets have given up a blocked punt for a score.
The defense was putrid as well, allowing the Dolphins to drive at will throughout the afternoon as back-up quarterback Matt Moore made a strong case to regain his starting job after starter Ryan Tannehill was knocked out of the game on a sack.
And the offense, led by quarterback Mack Sanchez, was ... well ... keep reading.
What is most distrubing about this 2012 Jets team is the horrific play this team is getting at the quarterback position, the lousy effort this team gives on offense week in and week out, and the lack of accountability from the sidelines.
After the game all Rex Ryan could talk about was how his team had a good week of practice, and how his players will have two days off this week because of Hurricane Sandy. Did Rex forgot the Jets have a Bye Week this week? They were getting time off regardless.
The lack of accountability by Rex Ryan is appalling. He sees the ship sinking in front of him and he has done nothing to stop it. He has watched his offense become the biggest joke in football and seems almost unwilling to fix it. He has watched his once-vaunted defense become average and has no answers for it, yet this is the same man who two months ago boasted that this was his best roster ever!
Not the case. Never was.
While Sanchez can't be blamed for the poor protection that surrounds him, it is quite clear that this guy just doesn't have it. He is not a franchise quaterback, and, in fact, has never been one.
His decision-making Sunday was once again suspect as he chucked footballs into the turf below the grasp of his receivers, threw a poorly timed interception when New York was on the move toward the end zone, took one bad sack after another, and even fumbled the football, twice. The deer in the headlights look? Still there.
He doesn't seem to be learning from the mistakes he has made over the past four years, and there is no indication that he will ever learn. What the Jets are doing by leaving Sanchez in as the starting quartback is both unfair to themselves and to Sanchez, not to mention the fans. New York clearly has no confidence in the current quarterback.
In addition, Tony Sparano's play-calling has been ultra-conservative from the get-go, which eerily echoes Hackett and Shottenheimer. There was no reason for the Jets to consistently run Shonn Greene on first and second down without attempting a deep pass when they are behind by double-digits. Because of Sanchez's inability to throw a good pass down field with any confidence, coupled with the coaching staff's lack of confidence in him, the Jets offense went south Sunday while Miami rolled over them.
The numbers don't lie either. In close games in the fourth quarter this year, Sanchez has completed only 39 percent of his passes. When the Jets are either trailing or tied, he has thrown eight interceptions compared to seven touchdowns and has even thrown three interceptions inside his opponents 20 yard line.
To this day, Sanchez still doesn't read defenses well, throws too often into double and triple coverage, and often misfires on his intended targets. That is not only a bad job on Sanchez's part for not learning from his mistakes, it looks worse on the coaching staff for not getting him to learn from his bad habits. There is only so much one player can do if he isn't learning from his mistakes; it reflects badly on the coaches, too.
Sanchez' defenders point to the fact that he won four road playoff games, and that he had a bad O-line last year. Well, Wayne Hunter is gone, so what is the excuse now? Some point to the fact that he has lousy wide receivers. Well, he had Braylon Edwards, Santonio Holmes and Plaxico Burress over the past two seasons, and he struggled to connect with those guys too.
These observations are not meant to suggest a campaign for Tim Tebow.
Tebow is no stud. His numbers are slightly worse than Sanchez's career numbers; he will not make a big difference to this team that is destined for failure and a top 10 draft pick in 2013; however, with a season already lost, what is there to lose with at least giving Tebow one or two starts after the Bye Week? At least the Jets can get that part of the Tebow experience over with and begin to move on.
In a way the Jets would be doing Sanchez a favor by sitting him. Only then will he finally see that there are consequences for poor play. Maybe then the message will get through, and only then will he learn how to play the position with more determination and confidence when give the opportunity again.
One thing Jets' fans can be certain of is this: if the Jets had a franchise quarterback, he would have been playing already.
However, does anybody trust this organization right now to go out and get the necessary ingredients?
From top to bottom, the Jets are a mess. It starts with Woody Johnson, a guy with no real football IQ, and has never given football people outside the organization, the sense that he runs a tight ship.Next, Mike Tannenbaum, the Jets embattled GM/capologist has got to go, and he has to go now. His drafts over the past four or five years have been awful. He drafted the likes of Shonn Greene, Muhammad Wilkerson, Quentin Couples, Vernon Gholston, Sanchez, and so many more who have not panned out with this team. The reason the Jets are so deficient in talent is because of Tannenbaum. He might be great in managing money, but he is no football guy.
And that leads us to Rex Ryan. Ryan's job is safe for now, but at some point Ryan has to take some responsibility for the fact that his team is not ready to play on a weekly basis. Enough talk about how great practice was and will be. Time and time again this team looks unprepared on Sunday. Time and time again, this team looks like it is missing a lot of key pieces, resembling more of a low A-level college football team than an NFL franchise.
If the Jets are going to make major changes, they had better start doing it now. This team is going nowhere this year. They are 3-5 and staring at 6-10 or 5-11. The first step in this process is to bench Sanchez and teach him a lesson. Then watch as the rest of the dominoes will follow.
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