Even if you took Rex Ryan at his word when he said the ground-and-pound Jets were going to throw the ball more this season, there were plenty of reasons to believe it wasn’t going to start with last night’s preseason opener against Houston.
The first one was that two-fifths of the Jets’ starting offensive line — center Nick Mangold and guard Brandon Moore — were not available to play.
Another was that Houston’s revamped defense under the new coordinator Wade Phillips looks capable of generating a lot of pressure on quarterbacks this season.
The Texans — who already had the star defensive end Mario Williams anchoring their front — drafted the pass rushing demon J.J. Watt with the 11th over all pick in April. Houston also signed cornerback Johnathan Joseph and safety Danieal Manning to bolster its secondary.
The Jets felt the brunt of the Texans’ new-look defense last night by giving up seven sacks, two of them against Mark Sanchez in the first quarter.
But did those pregame factors add up to enough reason to delay a test run of Air Ryan?
Apparently not.
The most notable outcome from the Jets’ 20-16 loss to the Texans was the quick pace set by Sanchez (6 of 7, 43 yards), who came out firing in his one-quarter cameo. And those numbers are actually misleading: Sanchez’s one incompletion was a perfect pass to tight end Matthew Mulligan, who let the football hit him between the 8 and the 2 before it fell to the ground and negated what would have been a 15-yard gain.
And the Jets’ play selection? Sanchez threw or attempted to throw on eight of the Jets’ first 10 plays from scrimmage. On their first drive, resulting in Nick Folk’s 33-yard field goal, the Jets threw or attempted to throw on five of their seven offensive plays.
On their second drive, the Jets threw on their first three plays before they shocked — yes, shocked! — the Texans with a running play that resulted in a 19-yard gain by Shonn Greene (5 rushes, 32 yards, 1 reception, 5 yards), who also impressed. Were the Jets really using the pass to set up the run? Hard to believe.
The Jets called it a night for Sanchez and the throw-first offense when center Robert Turner was injured on the play immediately after Greene’s 19-yard run, which resulted in a sack of Sanchez by the Texans’ Earl Mitchell. After calling pass plays on nine of their first 12 offensive plays, the Jets ran the ball on Sanchez’s last two plays before a punt ended the second possession.
A good start over all. Derrick Mason made an impressive debut. So did No. 11 Jeremy Kerley. On defense, No. 53 Josh Mauga showed he wants to be part of the party this season. In terms of intensity, Ryan was in top form when he recorded his second headset slam in two games. That occurred when Ryan was forced to burn a timeout in the second quarter because of a faulty substitution by the goal-line defense.
One of the keys for the Jets this season will be how much the offense can improve on the slow starts it was notorious for last season. One of the most negative statistics from 2010 was that the Jets scored 36 first-quarter points in 19 games, and 7 of those came on Brad Smith’s game-opening kickoff return for a touchdown against the Steelers in Week 15 in December. A quick-striking Sanchez figures to be very important in making fast starts more commonplace.
Extra point The Jets were a little rough around the edges Monday night, but there was a lot to like. What were some other highlights or lowlights from the game that merit mentioning?
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