TORONTO — In one ear and out the other went Yankees manager Joe Girardi’s message, flashing through the vast space between Mark Sanchez’s ears as quickly as coach Rex Ryan saw the Jets’ season passing before his eyes.
Sanchez went face-first to pick up the final two yards of an 8-yard gain, converting a third-and-6 at the Jets’ 13. He landed on his right knee, the one he didn’t tweak against Carolina last week, then two plays later almost couldn’t get out of the way of David Clowney after a handoff on a 13-yard end-around.
Out went Sanchez, in came Kellen Clemens. Up went the hair on the Jets coach’s neck.
“The kid’s got to understand we’re trying to teach him to slide,” Ryan said. “OK, if he would have slid, we wouldn’t have gotten the first down, but we might not have had a quarterback get hurt either.
“I love the kid, but he’s got to grow up and understand that he represents our entire organization, and we want what’s best for him.”
What’s best for Sanchez is best for the Jets. And it looked like the Jets were well on their way to getting his best so far in the NFL, which might cause Ryan to burst into tears again.
But his joy left quickly when Sanchez ignored orders to slide and Clemens had to finish the job.
Clemens threw a clutch third-down 14-yarder to Jerricho Cotchery to set up Jay Feely’s fourth field goal of the game to provide the insurance in a 19-13 victory over the Bills that kept the Jets breathing for a postseason berth with four games to go.
If red, yellow and green are the colors Ryan and Brian Schottenheimer use to advise Sanchez on the degree of risk on a particular play, purple would have been the color of Ryan’s face had Clemens done anything but roll out and tuck in the ball in the rest of the way.
Even in doing that, Clemens got nailed from behind by Paul Posluszny and fortunately fell on his own fumble. But if you think the wraps were on Sanchez, just wait until you see the game plan for Clemens next week at Tampa should the rookie be unable to go.
“We have all the confidence in the world in Kellen,” Ryan said.
Sanchez will have an MRI exam today and if the results are bad, Clemens will be the man. But it never should have been if Sanchez had slid instead of dove.
“It all happened fast,” said Sanchez sheepishly, and it happened just as the game had begun to slow down for him in his whirlwind rookie season. He read from a prepared statement at a press conference, ate a hot dog on the bench, and threw 17 interceptions in his first 11 weeks.
But last night, Sanchez, who finished 7-for-15 for 104 yards and one touchdown, was well on his way to avenging his five interceptions in the Oct. 18 loss to the Bills.
He threw for one touchdown to Braylon Edwards, had another apparent one by David Clowney, who got both feet down inbounds, taken away by apparently blurred vision in the replay booth, and suffered a brutal drop by a wide-open Edwards on what would have been an 84-yard touchdown reception.
After overthrowing Jerricho Cotchery badly in the end zone in the first quarter, Sanchez hadn’t looked this confident since Game 3.
“He was playing great,” Ryan said.
Then it happened, and it was Clemens’ game and maybe his season. Perhaps, it took something like this to get the message through to the Jets likable and immature quarterback, but that may not help them next week.