New York Jets quarterbacks Tim Tebow (left) and Mark Sanchez (right) talk before a preseason game.
By Krista Pirtle
Sports Editor
Let’s go on a road trip.
We’re going to start out taking a break for two days before heading to Nebraska.
After that, we will go to Denver and then to Zion.
We like it so much there that we stay for four days before traveling back to Nebraska and staying there for two days.
Do you know where we end up in this road trip game?
Neither do the New York Jets…
After three preseason games, all 21 total points scored have come from field goals, with 35 drives denied six points.
This is the first team to go this long without a touchdown since the Falcons in 1977.
New York is the only team in the NFL that has failed to score a touchdown and holds league lows in total yards and yards per play. The Jets are 0-5 in the red zone.
While many people might attack the abilities of both Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, the more devoted football fans would have noticed something off in the receiving corps.
It was as if the receivers had used their gloves to put lotion on their legs before the game.
Dropped passes, tipped passes and routes not run all the way through provided little options for the men under center.
Against Carolina with Tebow under center, this wasn’t much of an issue because his passes were all over the place.
A gigantic hole exists at right tackle, putting a defender in the face of Sanchez and on Tebow’s blind side.
Nine-year starting veteran Wayne Hunter was replaced by Austin Howard at the position.
At 6-feet-7, 333 pounds, Howard is the biggest player on the Jets roster. The 25-year-old Howard was awarded the starting spot after Hunter got beat for three sacks in a 26-3 preseason loss to the Giants.
The pass protection is awful; there is zero movement in running the football and zero threat on the perimeter to be vertically threatening.
The encouraging signs are in the running game. The Jets allowed one coverage sack that was offset by four dropped passes and foolish penalties against the Panthers.
Running the football will become more dynamic once the Jets implement the Wildcat, but the team needs more than Shonn Greene.
One of offensive coordinator Tony Sparano’s favorite quotes is ,“Do what you know.”
As of right now, it doesn’t seem like the Jets know much.
