Sanchez shows he's not in Big Ben's league

By Steve Serby
New York Post
http://www.nypost.com
September 17, 2012

PITTSBURGH — These are the days, these are the environments, when you truly find out who you are, and what you have a chance to be. A terribly hostile crowd, twirling Terrible Towels, a tough, proud team with a storied tradition, wounded and aging but defiant nevertheless, and clad not solely in black and gold, but in aura and mystique, with a Super Bowl quarterback with two rings and a Hall of Fame defensive coordinator waiting at the front of the ambush.

These are the days, these are the environments, when you find out whether you have the will to stand up to the bully, whether you have the grace under pressure and poise and intestinal fortitude and resiliency to weather the angry storm, and seize the moment and first place after Arizona 20, New England 18.

These are the days, these are the environments, when it’s you-against-the-world, and, if your quarterback’s name is Big Mark Sanchez, the world doesn’t scare you.

But on this day, Big Ben Roethlisberger took advantage of Darrelle Revis missing the game much better than Sanchez took advantage of Troy Polamalu and James Harrison missing it.

Dick LeBeau was a better defensive coordinator than the Rex Ryan-Mike Pettine tag team, so much so that Steelers 27, Jets 10 quickly became Big Ben versus Little Mark.

Sanchez, who was 4-for-5 for 80 yards and a touchdown on the opening series, finished 10-for-27 for 138 yards. Do the math: 6-for-22 for 58 yards the rest of the way. Timeout: Three of those completions, worth 36 yards, came when garbage time commenced with 1:07 remaining.

“Just got to be better throwing and catching,” Sanchez said.

Call it an unceremonious crash landing from his Cloud 6 opener.

We know that Sanchez is not in Big Ben’s league, and it is also a fact that his playmakers (anyone seen Stephen Hill ... or Santonio Holmes after his early touchdown catch?) cannot defeat press coverage and are not in the same league as Big Ben’s playmakers. And that was hardly a Steel Green Curtain Big Ben faced.

But you can’t win in this league when you can’t get off the field on third down or stay on the field on third down. You can’t stay on the field on third down when you complete only six passes to your wide receivers, and nary a one to a running back.

“I think guys are comfortable ... I think it was a matter of really throwing and catching on third down,” Sanchez said.

He couldn’t say that enough. The stat sheet — 4-of-12 on third down — could have spoken for him.

“I know we have the firepower to score points,” Sanchez said, “and that happens when you convert on third down.”

That can also happen when, down only 13-10, you at least make an attempt to score before the half. Sanchez, with two timeouts at his disposal, took over at his 31 with 57 seconds left. He swore that Lawrence Timmons’ noggin-knocking foul earlier in the quarter didn’t affect him. He handed off twice. That is what you call playing scared.

“There was discussion about it, but ultimately it was [offensive coordinator Tony] Sparano’s call and he wanted to run out the clock. We were getting the ball in the third quarter so ... defer to Coach Sparano,” Sanchez said.

What kind of message does that send, to your offense, and to their defense? What kind of message does it send to Sanchez?

Asked to assess his performance, Sanchez said: “Got to find some completions.”

I’d say.

Maybe a little no-huddle could have helped.

“I don’t know if no-huddle was necessarily the answer,” Sanchez said. “The throws weren’t there at times, the catches weren’t there at times. We need to be on the same page with that.”

Big Ben was on the same page with Mike Wallace for a 37-yard touchdown against Antonio Cromartie on third-and-16. In came Tim Tebow, who galloped for 22 yards on first down, handed off to Joe McKnight for 12 yards, then handed off to Shonn Greene for a 6-yard loss. Out went Tebow, because he can’t play catch-up at Heinz Field. Or anywhere else.

“We have to sustain it and not have a negative play,” Tebow said. “Without that, I feel like we got some momentum going and a good chance to go down and score.”

Sanchez missed on his next three third-down throws and Big Ben put Gang Green away.

“You’re not gonna beat anybody with a quarterback who has a 125 rating and over 36 minutes of time of possession,” Ryan said. Or when your quarterback has a 66.6 rating.

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