Mark Sanchez throws 59 times in loss; time to fire Schottenheimer

Time and time again, the New York Jets had an opportunity; a chance to pull ahead of the Giants and make their life easier to get intlo the playoffs.

Time and time again, a pass play was called for Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez.

And time and time again, it didn’t work.

Sanchez threw the ball 59 times in the Jets 29-14 loss to the Giants, a new career-high.

Despite the obvious failure in playcalling from offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, Coach Rex Ryan tried to downplay it by saying the fact they were trailing forced them to throw more than they wanted to, but they were only down 10 points in the third quarter.

“You’re not going to beat anybody … when you throw it that many times, that’s for sure,” Ryan said. “We averaged 4.2 [yards] a carry and we were running the ball effectively. You fall behind like that, we were behind a couple of scores, we had to speed it up. That’s why we did it. We’re really not built to play that game. It is what it is.”

The Jets players seemed a bit confused themselves at the playcalling.

“We came in with a plan, to be balanced. For some reason, we just got out of character,” wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. “I don’t know how many passes we threw but I knew it was a lot. I’m a little tired. But you don’t want to pass as much as we did and not being able to establish the run.”

Sanchez targeted tight end Dustin Keller 18 times; Keller caught eight of them; ten fell incomplete.

“I left a lot of completions out there,” said Sanchez, who finished 30 of 59 for 258 yards. He threw two interceptions and one touchdown.

His quarterback rating was 54.2.

“I need to play better,” Sanchez said. “We all need to.”

Schotty called for 28 pass plays in the first half alone. Throw in the five sacks the Giants had to the 59 pass attempts and the Jets tried 64 pass plays.

“I don’t know,” LaDainian Tomlinson said. “That’s a lot of throwing.”

The running game, when used, was effective.  Shonn Greene had 14 carries for 58 yards.