This is to me the most important thing we saw on offense. Despite some pundits' view that Sanchez' arm is not that strong, from a practical point of view I think it is easily in the top half of the league because of how well he threw while either on the run or just barely set. That is all footwork, and the contrast between what we saw yesterday and what we've seen in green for the past 10 years was striking. On defense it was nice to see how well the non-Ravens (Jenkins, Harris, Strickland) adapted to the Ravens-type defense. I'll wait to put us down for double-digit wins until I see a little more, but for an opening game of a rookie QB and rookie HC against a decent team, things couldn't have possibly gone any better.
I don't ever remember a Jets QB with Sanchez's footwork with the exception of Namath. Namath couldn't move laterally at all like Sanchez but he had an incredibly quick deep drop back and could set and throw like lightning. Sanchez doesn't come close to getting the ball out with that kind of power but his back up to set position is every bit as good and he throws a nice tight ball because even though he moves and slides, he is set when he throws. Hopefully he can take the pounding and doesn't tire out as the season progresses but you have to love what this guy has shown so far.
What did we say right before Captain Interceptions walked into Foxboro and beat the Pats in their own house? Maybe we need to keep saying it.
The Texans stacked the line and dared the Sanchez to beat them with his arm. That is why the running game was a bit slow going in the first half. TJ and Leon basically had no daylight to run through because the Texans were sending more than the o-line could open up for. Once Sanchez made some completions (after some early game jitters), the Texans had to back off more in the 2nd/3rd QTR - which is incidently after the pounding their D had taken just when TJ starting kicking it into high gear. The Jets were simply more physical on both sides of the ball than the Texans. This is the first game in a long time where I actually thought that Jets physically dominated a team. As for Sanchez: great field vision (for a rookie QB) which will get better with time + more than adequate arm strength + quick release (much faster than Pennington, Clemens and even Favre) + outstanding ball handling + tremendous footwork = *POTENTIALLY* something the Jets haven't put on the field in the QB position for a very long time. Yes Sanchez will get the crap kicked out of him and confused...which will most likely begin next week. However the Pats may actually be a good match-up for him given that their D is a little bit over-rated. The Jets o-line can and has run on that team and the d-backs are not what they used to be.
It's not unreasonable for the Jets to win in O/T against Cassel and the practice squad. My guess is you were as happy the day you learned to stroke your pecker.:grin: So how did the next few weeks work out? :drunk:
As I recall the next few weeks saw the Pats miss the playoffs because they couldn't beat the Jets in Foxboro. They also couldn't beat the Steelers there. They won everything else down the stretch but because they couldn't handle the Jets they missed the show.
I agree with most of this but I'd take it a step further and say that I'm not sure Namath had Sanchez' footwork even in his prime, and before the injuries of course, and for that reason I don't ever remember a Jets QB period with such moves so early in his career. And also, as I recall the early days, QBs were expected to be more "stallworth" and "hang in there" in the pocket more. Joe moved about very well and had a lightening quick release along with a good awareness, but I'm not sure I ever saw him move as quickly as "the kid" did yesterday and release the ball as well off the back foot and other awkward, supposedly "incorrect" positions. Of course, Joe Montana came along and changed the somewhat Vince Lombardian concept of a Statue Of Liberty-type, a guy who was "not afraid" to stay in the pocket come hell or high water and take the pounding. Montana was a whole new QB who was a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Sanchez is exhibiting an even more modern escape, dodge and stall technique and, I think, for such a rookie, a brassiness that Joe certainly had. But in my mind I'm trying to remember a Joe Namath with as good a move as this kid has and I'm coming up short on that. At any rate, this kid is the real deal.
The practice squad. I think that's what I'm going to refer to the Patriots' offensive line as when Kris Jenkins is turning them into his prison bitches next Sunday. They both won the same amount of division titles. The rest is meaningless.
I think you'd find that there were mobile scrambling QBs in the NFL prior to Joe Montana. Montana was simply the greatest QB in NFL history so we tend to forget that thee were others who played that style before Joe.
Could be, but Montana epitomized and perfected it. He was Leon Washington with a QB's number on his jersey, running every which way to buy time. He almost single-handedly (at least in my mind) changed the concept of "a QB must remain steady and plant his foot in order to pass the ball with the greatest accuracy." Montana said "Bullshit, I'll scramble to buy time until Jerry Rice or somebody else gets open." My point is, Sanchez has that.
