It’s not all Mark Sanchez’s fault.
CBS analyst and Chargers great Dan Fouts said the blame for the 3-6 Jets’ struggles should not be put solely on Sanchez, despite the quarterback completing just 52 percent of his passes and throwing 10 touchdowns compared to nine interceptions.
“It goes back to the whole team concept,” Fouts said. “The whole team hasn’t played very well. Offensively, they’ve struggled with protection, they’ve struggled running the ball. A big part of Sanchez’s game has been the bootleg, the play-action. … So teams had to respect that. If you get the running game going more, it would take pressure off him and then play into his strengths more.
“Losing Santonio Holmes early in the season like that and not having [Dustin] Keller because of his injury [earlier in the season], you lose a couple of playmakers there. And I think it’s really affected the offense. You’re not going to get Holmes back, but other players are going to have to step up and support Sanchez more.”
And the Jets need that immediately. Coach Rex Ryan’s beleaguered crew heads to St. Louis on Sunday to face the 3-5-1 Rams before a Thanksgiving night showdown against the 6-3 Patriots. Another loss would almost guarantee back-to-back seasons without a playoff appearance for the Jets after consecutive trips to the AFC Championship Game.
“There’s always a chance,” Fouts said. “I wouldn’t say the season is a total loss yet. If there ever was a must-win, it’s probably a must-win from here on out when you’re at 3-6. If you look at the AFC, you have one dominant team [Houston] and everyone else is up-and-down each week. It’s been shown that if you get hot at the end of the season anything can happen, but this team is going to have to get torrid.”
The Jets’ lack of talent and execution around the quarterback has been mostly overlooked, because of the constant headlines surrounding Sanchez and backup Tim Tebow. The Jets have maintained Sanchez is the starter, but that has not halted interest in the pseudo-controversy.
“It’s a tough situation for any quarterback when you have two quarterbacks that are capable of playing and there’s not a clear-cut guy, though in the Jets’ mind Sanchez is the clear-cut guy. I know the coach has said that, but because of the nature of Tim Tebow it’s a very unique situation. I can’t remember another situation like this is in a long time,” Fouts said.
And that’s coming from a guy whose 1973 rookie season in San Diego was spent in a three-way quarterback split that included the legendary Johnny Unitas. Fouts said he believes the Jets need to either hand the reins to Tebow completely or keep him on the bench, instead of mingling him intermittently throughout the contest to run the Wildcat.
“The one play here, the one play there, it hasn’t worked,’’ Fouts said. “I am a firm believer that you have one guy in that position.’’