Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer may be coaching for his job this week.
The Jets are now 27th in the NFL in total offense and looked like a complete mess on Saturday against the Giants. They attempted 68 passes (59 attempts, 5 sacks, 4 scrambles) and just 25 rushes.
Schottenheimer’s contract runs through 2013, but if the Jets are looking for someone to pay should they miss the playoffs, he would be the most likely candidate. Head coach Rex Ryan is not going anywhere and they are not giving up on quarterback Mark Sanchez.
The Jets offense has struggled to find an identity all season. They began the year throwing the ball, went back to the run and then Saturday threw more than they have in years.
The worst series of the day came with 5:39 to play and the Jets trailing 20-14. Schottenheimer called three straight passes — two were incompletions and one ended in a sack.
Sanchez defended Schottenheimer.
“When we got the ball back with five minutes left, people are saying, ‘Why don’t you run the ball? Why don’t you run the ball?’ ” Sanchez said. “It’s easy to say that now, but we had just driven the ball all the way down the field throwing the heck out of it. We were going with what was working. If you look back, who knows what could have happened if we kept running, but that’s not fair. That’s not fair to Schotty. I thought he called a great game. We just didn’t execute the plays that were called.”
* The NFL will not investigate the postgame confrontation between Ryan and Giants running back Brandon Jacobs. So Ryan, who was fined $75,000 last month for yelling a profanity at a fan, does not have to worry about another fine.
* Ryan built up the Jets-Giants game into a huge rivalry, but several Jets players said they did not buy into that.
“There’s no rivalry if you play them once every four years,” linebacker Calvin Pace said. “This ain’t Ohio State-Michigan. Once every four years, they’re just the next team on the schedule. I never really got what this [stuff] was all about.”
* Jets center Nick Mangold took the blame for the botched snap to Sanchez in the fourth quarter that resulted in a fumble the Giants recovered in the end zone.
“I’ve got to get the ball to Mark and I didn’t, so I failed,” Mangold said.
It appeared Mangold hit his leg with the snap, sending the ball into the end zone.