BAD MARK: Despite Mark Sanchez’s struggles, coach Rex Ryan still believes the fourth-year quarterback — and not Tim Tebow — gives the Jets the best opportunity to win. (Anthony J. Causi)
Here is what Broncos coach John Fox said on Sept. 26, 2011 about making Tim Tebow his starting quarterback: “Right now, in our opinion, Kyle [Orton] gives us the best chance to win.”
Here is what Jets coach Rex Ryan said yesterday about making Tebow his starting quarterback: “Right now, I think Mark [Sanchez] gives us our best opportunity to win.”
Déjà vu?
Fox, of course, caved two weeks later and replaced Orton with Tebow, who led the Broncos to a division title. Will Ryan follow suit?
The Jets coach is putting up a strong front against a growing opinion that Sanchez can’t get the job done and Tebow is the answer.
“I just know in my heart right now that this is not the time,” Ryan said. “I think Tim is an outstanding player. I think Mark is. Right now, I think Mark gives us our best opportunity to win. I will always do, in my opinion, what’s in the best interest of this team, and that interest is what gives us the best chance to win. No matter who it is.”
This was the worst-case scenario for Jets management when it made the trade for Tebow in March. Sanchez and the offense get off to a bad start and the cries for Tebow get louder. At the end of Sunday’s embarrassing 34-0 loss to the 49ers, the few Jets fans left chanted for Tebow. That was followed by media members calling for Tebow to start and a lot of unease with Sanchez among the Jets fan-base yesterday.
“As competitive as Mark is, I know this is killing him,” Ryan said. “He’s going to want to respond. But you have to stay within the structure of what we need, too. It’s a guy looking for a three-run homer with one guy on base. We can’t have that. Do his job. When guys are open, get him the football. Don’t force the issue. And protect the football. I think he will. We’ve seen him before. He’s responded.”
Ryan cited Sanchez’s rookie season, when he threw five interceptions against the Bills. But shouldn’t Sanchez, in his fourth year, be beyond these awful performances? He has completed less than 50 percent in each of his last three games. Sunday, he had two inexcusable turnovers — a killer fumble at the end of the first half and an intercepted screen pass.
Since looking good against the Bills and in their first two drives in Pittsburgh, the Jets offense has scored 16 points on 33 possessions. Nineteen of those series have ended in punts, six in turnovers and 16 have been three-and-out. The 2-2 Jets face another tough defense Monday when the Texans come to MetLife Stadium.
The problems are not all Sanchez’s fault, but he has been terrible. Still, Ryan is sticking by him.
“He’s definitely our guy,” Ryan said. “I mean we’ve had some poor performances in the past, and not just from our quarterback, from our team and we’ve been whipped pretty good, but I’m confident we’ll come back.”
Linebacker Bart Scott said he felt it was undue criticism of Sanchez and pointed out the Jets quarterback was playing without tight end Dustin Keller and starting wide receiver Stephen Hill on Sunday. Scott said a quarterback change is not the answer to the Jets’ problems.
“Mark is our quarterback,” Scott said in a conference call with reporters. “It’s [the media’s] job to push the panic button. If [the media] had [the ability to], you would change it from week-to-week. I don’t think we’re at that point yet. Mark is our quarterback. We believe in him and the team will rally around him. It’s not all his fault. We have to run the ball better. We have to play better defense. We have to set him up with better field position. [Those] are all things that our team thinks that we have to do.”