A sinister licking-his-chops smirk appeared on the face of Rex Ryan when asked how he feels when playing against a rookie quarterback.
“I would feel confident against any rookie quarterback,” Ryan said yesterday. “I always felt that you had an advantage going against a rookie quarterback. They haven’t seen you. You think you can rattle them. You think you can confuse them and run traps against them.
“I’m sure Belichick is going to try and do that.”
This is certainly what Mark Sanchez is preparing for when he faces the Patriots and their defensive mastermind head coach Bill Belichick in the Jets’ home opener Sunday at Giants Stadium.
Belichick has developed the well-earned reputation for being a genius when it comes to devising deceptive defensive schemes to confound opposing quarterbacks — particularly rookies, against whom he’s 5-1.
Belichick’s defenses often force opposing quarterbacks into making bad decisions that lead to losses and migraine headaches for themselves and their coaches.
“They do a good job of confusing some of the best quarterbacks in the league, and [Sanchez] is an inexperienced quarterback,” Jets right tackle Damien Woody, who played for Belichick in New England, said yesterday. “One thing about New England is they’re game plan specific, so a lot of times what you see on film is not what you’re going to get on game day,”
CBS commentator Dan Dierdorf was impressed with Sanchez’ NFL debut last week, but warned that tougher times will come Sunday.
“One thing is for sure, Mark Sanchez will spend the whole week being shown things by the Jets coaches about what to expect from New England and will see something defensively he has never seen before,” Dierdorf said. “That is Bill Belichick’s MO. He will try to get under Sanchez’s skin and into his head early and make him uncomfortable.”
Sanchez is being as schooled-up as he can by veteran coaches and teammates — most of whom have been beaten more often than not by Belichick’s teams for years.
“We could see anything,” Sanchez said. “And they’re capable of playing anything, because of their athletes, because of the guys they have, their personnel.”
Belichick’s defenses have owned rookie quarterbacks over the years, sending Carolina’s Chris Weinke, Detroit’s Joey Harrington, Jacksonville’s Byron Leftwich, Cleveland’s Luke McCown and Tennessee’s Vince Young all home losers. The only rookie to beat Belichick is Pittsburgh’s Ben Roethlisberger in 2004.
“I’ve heard plenty of that [about rookie quarterbacks] and I know this is one well-coached group,” Sanchez said. “They give quarterbacks fits.”
There’s a consensus among the Jets that, despite his inexperience, Sanchez can’t have had any better training for a game like Sunday’s than he’s had facing the Jets’ defense in practices.
“He’s seen a lot of different looks already from our defense,” Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said.
“The good news for Mark is that he goes against our defense every day and they’re kind of the same way [as the Patriots] in that you never know what blitz is around the corner,” Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said.
Another thing in Sanchez’ favor is the fact that he’s coming off a very positive experience in his NFL debut, the 24-7 win in Houston, where he went 18-of-31 for 272 yards and a TD.
Sanchez is savvy enough already to know that whatever occurred last week has nothing to do with what’ll go down on Sunday against Belichick and the Patriots.
“The biggest thing about last week is that it’s over,” Sanchez said. “Last week seems like a millennium ago.”
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