brunell taking snaps with first team
Jets use Brunell in practice to motivate Sanchez
Jets Blog
By BRIAN COSTELLO
Last Updated: 8:25 AM, November 23, 2011
Posted: 1:14 AM, November 23, 2011
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Jets coach Rex Ryan made a snap decision about his quarterback this week.
Ryan has given backup Mark Brunell reps with the first team for the first time this season in an effort to spark inconsistent starter Mark Sanchez.
The motivational ploy is one Ryan has turned to before. After the Jets lost two straight games last December, Ryan said he considered benching Sanchez and then put Brunell with the starters for a few snaps in practice. Sanchez later told GQ the move made him want to fight Ryan and he would not allow Brunell in the huddle. That week, Sanchez played one of his best games in the Jets’ win over the Steelers.
NELL MILLER
SNAP JUDGMENT: Mark Sanchez takes a snap at practice yesterday. Sanchez was not under center for four snaps, when Rex Ryan let backup Mark Brunell take snaps with the first team.
Riding a two-game losing streak again, Ryan is hoping the same trick works.
“I know Mark Sanchez extremely well,” Ryan said. “I know how tough, how that fighting spirit he has. If it takes me to do this and take a punch in the nose, I don’t care. I’ll do it. But we’ve got to have it from him. He’s the guy. He’s my guy and we have to have it from him. ... When he’s that way, we’re extremely hard to beat.”
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Ryan made it clear he has no plans to make a quarterback change to the 41-year-old Brunell, who took two snaps Monday and four yesterday. He seemed to be half-joking when discussing the situation with reporters, but did say Sanchez was not happy with him. He said the two had not spoken this week.
Sanchez said he did not have a problem with Brunell taking a few reps, but his answers on the topic were brief and he said, “That’s Rex’s deal.”
At one point during the questioning, a Jets public relations staffer told reporters cornerback Darrelle Revis was available for questions. Sanchez said, “Ooh, perfect,” hoping reporters would leave his locker.
Ryan admitted the ploy was part motivation, part superstition because of the results it got from Sanchez last year. Against the Steelers, Sanchez did not put up huge numbers, completing 19 of 29 passes for 170 yards and no touchdowns or interceptions, but led the Jets to a huge victory on the road after suffering a shoulder injury early in the game.
“I don’t think it really matters, but for some reason he got a little hot under the collar and gave that super-competitive fighting spirit that he knows he has,” Ryan said.
Sanchez has experienced an up-and-down third season as the Jets’ quarterback. He has not progressed the way many people expected him to. He has 10 interceptions through 10 games after throwing 13 all of last year, and has thrown three interceptions that have been returned for touchdowns, including one in each of the last two games.
Ryan and Sanchez both said they have a strong relationship, but a little coach-quarterback tension, a la Bill Parcells-Phil Simms, might be a good thing.
“We’re close, no question, but I’m close with my kids and I have to rip them every now and then, so it’s the same thing,” Ryan said.
Sanchez said: “We’re both competitive, we both want to win, we both have our own ways of going about things and that’s all. It’s a matter of winning. So I’m not mad at him. I don’t know where that came from. We’re good. I’m just trying to win the game. I’m not worried about anything else.”
Ryan was asked if he would bench Sanchez in favor of Brunell should the starter struggle against the Bills on Sunday.
“I’m not going to take him out,” Ryan said. “He’s our quarterback, but don’t even write that. Let him think it.”
Sanchez has taken the brunt of the criticism directed at the Jets during this disappointing 5-5 season. Now in his third year, he knows it comes with the position.
“It’s playing quarterback in New York,” he said. “It’s great when you’re winning, it’s tough when you’re losing. So we just have to go win.”
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/jets/plo ... z1eXoKhclB
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