The maturation of Mark Sanchez continues.
For the third week in a row, Sanchez led the Jets to a game-winning score when it mattered most, driving New York 72 yards in the final 45 seconds Sunday to beat the Houston Texans 30-27 at New Meadowlands Stadium.
With no timeouts remaining, the second-year pro calmly completed a pair of quick passes to LaDainian Tomlinson, a 42-yard strike to Braylon Edwards and a perfect 6-yard fade in the back of the end zone to Santonio Holmes. The comeback caps a three-week “crunch time” tour de force for Sanchez, who hit Holmes on a 37-yard game-winning touchdown in overtime last week against the Browns and engineered a 10-point comeback in a Week 9 win over the Lions.
Sanchez, fair or not, was the weak link last year for a Jets team that boasted the NFL’s best defense and running game. He played well in the playoffs — especially in New York’s wild card win over Cincinnati — but his inconsistency during the regular season (three games with a quarterback rating over 100, four with a rating under 50) was a huge reason behind the Jets finishing 9-7 and having to run the gauntlet just to get to the AFC Championship game.
But different season, different story. Sanchez still flashes signs of ineffectiveness — he struggled in a Week 1 loss to Baltimore and was completely off-kilter against Green Bay — but his week-in-week-out play has been much better. Sanchez’s touchdown-interception ratio — horrifically bad in 2009 — has been reversed in 2010. He’s taking care of the football, and the Jets — with all those playmakers on offense — are benefiting from it.
The Jets are playing dangerously close games against inferior teams, letting the Lions rough them up for three quarters, giving up a tying touchdown drive to the Browns and allowing the Texans to erase a 23-7 late-game lead. But they’re finding ways to win, and in 2010 that’s happening because of Sanchez, not in spite of him.
