To date, it’s all been rainbows and unicorns for Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez. The “Sanchize” has led his team to a 3-0 record and has been far more than a mere steward in getting them there.
Anyone doubting he wasn’t suited to lead this team from the outset of the season must now admit they missed their mark (I would be in that group).
Still, he’s got some things to brush up on. And head coach Rex Ryan says that ballhandling is at the top of that list.
Ryan said that Sanchez’ penchant for holding the ball in one hand away from his body while scrambling is “a turnover waiting to happen.”
According to Manish Mehta of the Newark Star-Ledger, Ryan said Friday that a quarterback has to “sense the pressure and understand that you still got to move and protect the football, while you’re focusing down the field.”
An example of Sanchez’ ball exposure came last week on his touchdown scramble against the Titans. During the run, he had the ball in one hand away from his body. As he met contact at the goal line, he reached the ball out, again with one hand. Fortunately, the ball had broken the plane before it was slapped loose by a Titans defender. But the hard, gutsy run would have been for naught if he hadn’t.
Sanchez admitted this week that he’d lost focus on that aspect of his game.
“It started to get a lot worse now,” Sanchez said. “You’re so busy trying to learn the offense. You start playing and you get really comfortable. There’s no excuse for that. That can’t happen. We just need to nip that in the bud and move on.”
A quarterback who leaves the ball dangling repeatedly can be sure that every defensive coach going forward will tell his charges there are opportunities there. Sanchez can rest assured the Saints will be looking to see if he’s changed that habit when the two 3-0 teams meet Sunday in the Superdome.
Maybe he can practice with Florio’s balls.
You forgot to mention that Brett Favre played for the Jets last year. Of course that probably would have been too easy. A real challenge would be to see if you can work Favre into a Steelers-Chargers thread.
I do commend the Jets for giving him a nickname so quickly. But the dude is still dirty.
Unless Sanchez has already told Pete Carroll to kiss his rump, he’s a better man than I.
I’m thinking he gets a wake up call tomorrow. It’s going to be catch up with the Jets missing 2 of their cornerbacks and Gregg Williams loves to confuse and blitz rookies. Should be good fun.
He said “ballhandling”
Dirty Sanchize ?
Curran, all you got is “what ifs”???
Yeah, he could have fumbled BUT he didn’t. Just admit it, so far the kid out of USC is good. Trust me plenty of teams would line up to take him now.
By the way, women like it dirty…but dudes who only get Rosy and her five sisters wouldn’t know that.
Jets fans are great at giving nicknames quickly.
Does “Mangenius” ring a bell. I hope the Jets continue winning, but I also hope the Jets fans don’t miss it because they are down on their knees taking turns satisfying their new QB.
Sanchez is allready a much better QB than M Vick ever was, although Vick’s ” ball handling ” skills are probably much better after his stint in
the slammer.