12 td's 20 INTS TY
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Sports
Gleason: Sanchez is primary problem
Rookie QB will get better, but he's hurting Jets now
<SCRIPT language=javascript type=text/javascript> var isoPubDate = 'December 21, 2009'</SCRIPT>By
Kevin Gleason
December 21, 2009 2:00 AM
EAST RUTHERFORD N.J. — The Jets led 7-3 in the second quarter when a pass from Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan went through running back Jason Snelling's hands at the Falcons' 35. Closing on the play, Jets safety Jim Leonhard suddenly found the ball heading for his mitts. The only thing separating Leonhard from the end zone was a 35-yard patch of Giants Stadium turf.
All Leonhard had to do was catch the darn thing.
All he had to do was catch it and run a modest 35-yard dash without tripping over a carpet dust mite. And if he did, let's be honest, the Falcons could have played 12 quarters without overcoming an 11-point lead on Sunday.
But Leonhard dropped it, as so many Jets before him have dropped the ball, and the Falcons remained close enough to pounce in the end.
"It doesn't get much easier than that,'' Leonhard lamented in the locker room afterward. He shook his head. "I have to make that play. It's too easy a play to make.''
He continued to talk, Leonhard did, and he was still talking as the locker room cleared out. Suddenly a Jets player stopped at his locker on the way to the interview room next door.
"Ready to roll?'' a Jets media relations official asked Mark Sanchez.
"Let's do it,'' Sanchez replied.
You could certainly blame Leonhard and his defensive mates for the Jets' 10-7 loss, the latest in a detailed list of excruciating defeats to befall this franchise. And coach Rex Ryan was intent on doing just that after Tony Gonzalez ran toward the west end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 6, planted his right foot and turned to receive the game-winning TD pass with 1:38 left.
Or you could blame the field-goal unit that exhausted every possible flaw when lining up for a kick: a bad snap leading to a block, a bad hold and a bad miss.
But the real reason for this team's predicament, a loss that essentially ended the Jets' playoff hopes, was about to enter the interview room.
Sanchez had another performance straight out of the rookie handbook. He threw three interceptions, the last two tossed into a crowd of three Falcons, to bring his season total to 20 picks against 12 touchdown passes. The result was the fourth of seven losses that could be pinned squarely on Sanchez's shoulders.
That's not to pick on the guy. He will get much better. There will come a day, maybe as early as next season, when throws such as the 65-yard TD strike to Braylon Edwards in the first quarter will become commonplace. There will come a day when Sanchez reads defenses more swiftly, when he stops trying to stick the football where it doesn't fit.
That day wasn't Sunday. That day, in the 14-game picture, wasn't this season.
This team is far removed from the same-old-Jets tag. Ryan has built a culture that effectively eliminated the phrase from our vernacular.
But this was the same-old-new-quarterback. Sanchez is just not ready to lead this team to the playoffs.
"It's tough to swallow,'' Sanchez said when he reached the podium. "It's never good when you play that poorly. You can't win like that as a quarterback.''
The kid is easy to root for. Sanchez has that youthful sprinkling of exuberance, guts and arrogance. But until he starts to consistently make better decisions with the football, until he thinks better on the field, the Jets are a .500 team headed for much more late-game heartbreak.
"Maybe I was trying to look a little too far down the field when it's a four-down-territory situation,'' Sanchez said of his final interception thrown, on second-and-13 at the Jets' 21 with 1:05 left. "It's just one of those things you have to remember. You have two downs, so you don't have to get all 13 yards on the first play. I need to learn from that and be smarter the next time.''
Sanchez's critical self-analysis has become a post-game staple. He deserves credit for taking the blame. The Jets will become a playoff team when he understands the ramifications of his actions before putting the ball in the air or on the ground, not after.
kgleason@th-record.com
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