Monday, November 22, 2010

A Star Is Born


Jets fans have watched Jim Kelly lead the Bills, Dan Marino lead the Dolphins, and Tom Brady lead the Patriots, all the while waiting for their own franchise quarterback. The wait is officially over.

In a Super Bowl or bust season, facing enormous pressure, and constantly being referred to as the "weak link", Mark Sanchez has quickly become not only an adequate starting quarterback, he has become a star in the making.

However, should we really be surprised? We should have seen the signs as to what kind of quarterback he could be.

-Hes the kind of quarterback who outplays Tom Brady in only his 2nd career start, leading the Jets to a 16-9 victory over Belichek and the Patriots. The first Jets win home victory over New England since 2000.

-Hes the kind of quarterback who completes 80% of his passes in his 1st career road playoff game in freezing temperatures in Cincinnati.

-Hes the kind of quarterback who scrambles and keeps the play alive on 3rd and goal in San Diego, throwing a touchdown pass to give the Jets the lead in the 4th quarter, orchestrating the biggest upset of the 2009 NFL season.

-Hes the kind of quarterback who throws a picture perfect 80 yard touchdown pass to Braylon Edwards on the road in the AFC Championship game with Dwight Freeney breathing down his neck.

Despite these outstanding moments from his rookie season, Sanchez has continually been scrutinized and ridiculed. His rookie season was far from perfect but it was not nearly as poor as people made it out to be. Of his 20 interceptions in 2009, 15 came in 5 games, meaning in the other 10 games he only threw 5. Not trying to paint him as an MVP, but he played well for a rookie in every two out of three games.

On the biggest stage in the postseason, he became only the second rookie quarterback in NFL history to win two playoff games. His QB Rating of 92.7 through three playoff games is the highest ever for any rookie quarterback in the postseason. All in all, no rookie quarterback has ever had a better postseason than the one Mark Sanchez had in 2009.

In his second season, Sanchez has build on his rookie performance and improved in ways that even the most optimistic Jets fan could not have imagined. The Jets are currently the number one seed in the highly competitive AFC and they owe it all to their 24 year old quarterback.

The running game and defense have not equalized, or even come close, to their 2009 form. The onus has fallen back on Sanchez and he has delivered time and time again. Whether it be a 4th and 6 with the game on the line in Denver, a 10 point deficit with less then 3 minutes left in Detroit, tied at 20 with 24 seconds left in overtime in Cleveland, or down 4 with 55 seconds left and no timeouts while being 72 yards away from pay dirt, Sanchez has come through in the clutch.

There is no doubt that up until this point Sanchez has been the best player on the 2010 Jets. Without his stellar play the team could easily find itself at 4-6 or worse. He only started 16 games at USC but his two biggest performances came in the two biggest games of his college career against Ohio State and Penn State. The recipe for his heroics has been present before he became an NFL quarterback.

Whatever the "it" factor is, Mark Sanchez certainly has it. In a league where offenses and quarterbacks continue to dominate, the New York Jets finally have their man.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Mind Games Not Working In D.C

Maybe we owe Albert Haynesworth an apology after all.

Only two months after America was forced to watch the Mike Shanahan-Albert Haynesworth soap opera play out in D.C, Donovan McNabb has become the latest victim of the head coach's ridiculous mind games and antics.

Down six with close to two minutes to play, Shanahan benched his "franchise" quarterback and replaced him with backup Rex Grossman---yes that Rex Grossman, with the game on the line. Up until that point, McNabb had a respectable stat line, 17-30 for 210 yards 1 TD 1 Int and 4 carries for 45 yards, and led the Redskins offense to 25 points.

McNabb's performance on the field hardly seemed worthy of a benching but Shanahan saw otherwise. In an effort to justify his actions, Shanahan has come out with new answers seemingly every hour, each one being more ridiculous then the one before it. It started with McNabb not being knowledgeable of the team's two minute offense, proceeded to McNabb needing to rest an injured hamstring, then evolved into McNabb not having enough cardiovascular health to keep up the tempo in a two minute drill.

In regards to not being ready for a two minute drill, Donovan has been a Redskin since April 4th and has been in the league for 12 years, certainly enough time to know what to do. He was also able to bust off a 36 yard run in Sunday's game so the injured hamstring and cardiovascular health seem to be ok. See a trend here? The excuses are ludacris.

The only thing worse then a dumb mistake is a dumb mistake that is followed up with pathetic excuses. Though the Redskins may feel they have underachieved with a 4-4 record, without #5 they may very well be winless. The team has one of the worst offensive lines in football, no running backs worth mentioning, and a wide receiving core that featured the ancient Joey Galloway as a starter for five games. Oh and not to mention, the defense is ranked 31st against the pass and 20th against the run. All in all, the team stinks and McNabb is one of the few bright spots.

Back in August, Albert Haynesworth dealt with benchings and embarrassments at the hands of Shanahan and McNabb has followed suit. Apparently Mike Shanahan has decided he is going to make an example of the team's most important player in McNabb and arguably the team's best player, Haynesworth. For a coach who has won exactly ONE playoff game since 1999 to be so arrogant and manipulative isn't just off-base, its outrageous.

Luckily for Donovan, however, his contract is up at the end of the season and he will have the freedom to go where he chooses. Washington has not made worthwhile efforts to resign the future Hall of Fame quarterback, and with this latest maneuver it appears the writing is on the wall.

Hey Donovan, maybe Philadelphia wasn't so bad after all?