WHAT THE FU? Mark Sanchez, sporting a glorious Fu Manchu mustache, was able to smile despite several miscues while rookie Geno Smith (left inset), his Jets QB competition, sat out the 37-13 preseason win over the Jaguars with a taped ankle. (Neil Miller (2))
WHAT THE FU?: Mark Sanchez, sporting a glorious Fu Manchu mustache, was able to smile despite several miscues while rookie Geno Smith (left inset), his Jets QB competition, sat out the 37-13 preseason win over the Jaguars with a taped ankle. (
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It is because of his recent wretched backstory, not to mention his recent wretched buttstory, that you must hesitate before pronouncing Mark Sanchez the winner of the quarterback competition.
Sanchez was knocking on the door of the Jaguars goal line and threatening to knock down the door of his Jets quarterback competition with Geno Smith.
First-and-goal from the 5. First-and-starting job.
He actually had heard cheers as he pumped his right fist in the air and began skipping towards the end zone following a 23-yard touchdown strike to tight end Jeff Cumberland on the opening drive last night, and now Sanchez made what seemed at the time to be a watershed decision when he dropped back, saw no one open and hurled the ball at one of his offensive linemen’s feet.
After 52 turnovers over the past two years, this was the prettiest throw, the most meaningful throw, Sanchez possibly could have made in the eyes of Rex Ryan and John Idzik and Marty Mornhinweg and David Lee and whoever else will be collaborating on a quarterback verdict. The light bulb had gone on, at last!
And then Sanchez was intercepted in the end zone.
Of course he was.
And after Marcus Trufant dove in front of Kellen Winslow for the gift, the boobirds who will follow Sanchez everywhere he goes awakened at MetLifeless Stadium.
The Sanchez supporters — a species going alarmingly extinct — would tell you it’s progress that at least it wasn’t a pick-six.
“It was a tight lane,” Sanchez said. “I should have put it out in front of Kellen a little more.”
Watching it all from the sidelines in street clothes was Smith, the People’s Choice with the rapidly improving bum ankle, who deserves a last shot — a first shot — at starting Saturday night against the Giants and unseating Sanchez.
And can’t wait for it.
“Any chance I get to compete, I’m going to try and take full advantage of it,” Smith said. “I got another week of practice coming up, so I’m going to go out there with the right mentality and try to win the job.”
A command performance from Sanchez, who completed his first five passes in the Jets’ 37-13 victory, very well could have reduced Smith’s chances to win the job to little more than a Hail Mary by those powers-that-be desperate to throw Jets fans a bone of hope for a better tomorrow.
By the same token, Sanchez had to recognize that yet another lapse in the critical ball-security department would embolden the Smith supporters plotting his demise and open the door to an 11th-hour coup d’état.
It is always better, for the sake of your team, to have your starting quarterback in place in the all-important third preseason game. It is also important to be right.
It remains difficult to champion Sanchez’s cause. Ryan can’t possibly trust him the way he once did, especially with his own neck on the line. But he will need a reason to trust Smith as well, and he doesn’t have it right now. It’s just there remains this morbid sense that though Sanchez presumably leads the race run against a gimpy rookie, he is still a good bet to drop the ball.
Sanchez (13 of 23, 169 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT) had a chance to change the narrative a tiny bit at the end of the first half, but on third-and-goal from the 6, he was flushed to his right, didn’t have the presence of mind to get rid of the ball quickly enough and threw the ball way out of bounds as time expired.
Ryan took the blame for a risky call. Nice try.
“That won’t happen again,” Sanchez said. “That shouldn’t happen. I have to get rid of that ball sooner. … I know better than that.”
Sanchez had a chance to deliver the knockout blow. But he long ago surrendered the right to cough up the ball in the red zone.
“I’m getting more and more comfortable with Marty [Mornhinweg],” Sanchez said.
It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world for Smith to start the regular season on the bench while Sanchez serves as a sacrificial lamb of sorts, maybe for the first month or so.
It would be a better thing for the emotional well-being of Jets Nation if Smith gets his chance to start — and makes the most of it. Because we know what Sanchez is. We don’t know yet what Smith can be.