Glauber: Aggressive approach works for Sanchez, Jets

The moment Nick Folk's kick split the uprights with no time left in regulation, Mark Sanchez marched over to offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer and coach Rex Ryan to plead his case.

The Jets had just completed an unlikely comeback from a 10-point deficit late in the fourth quarter against the Lions, and Sanchez implored his coaches to use the same aggressive strategy in overtime.

Forget the ground-and-pound that Ryan prefers; Sanchez knew the Jets needed to stick with the hurry-up offense right from the start of overtime. Especially after the Jets won the coin toss to get the ball first.

"As soon as we kicked the field goal, I'm running over to the sidelines thinking these guys can't stop us," Sanchez said a few minutes after completing an exhilarating 23-20 overtime win in a game that looked all but lost late in regulation. The second-year quarterback told his coaches, "These guys can't stop us. We've got to go full. Keep going. Keep going."

Schottenheimer immediately was on board. Ryan? Oh, how he struggled with this one. The strategy went against every fiber of his run-the-ball-whenever-possible-and-then-run-it-some-more makeup. But after seeing how effective the offense was late in the game - this after the continuation of a disturbing trend of ineptitude that had seeped in the last three games - Ryan reluctantly agreed.

"I'm a ground-and-pound guy, but at the end of the day, I said, 'Let it go, kid,' '' Ryan said. "I thought Schotty did an outstanding job of play-calling. There was no panic at all."

And Ryan? "I thought there might have been a little p-p-p-p-panic on my part," he quipped.

After what happened against the Lions, maybe Ryan ought to loosen the reins a little more often. Sanchez certainly justified the bolder approach. Rallying the Jets in a furious fourth-quarter comeback, he played some of his most inspired football.

Outside of a beautifully thrown 74-yard touchdown pass to Braylon Edwards near the end of the first half, the passing offense was spotty at best. In one stretch from midway through the third quarter until late in the fourth, Sanchez was intercepted on a deep route for Santonio Holmes, then had three straight third-down incompletions.

But after taking possession with 4:26 to play at the Jets' 44 - and watching a penalty push the ball back to the 39 - Sanchez helped save the Jets. A week after one of his worst performances in a 9-0 home loss to the Packers, he completed passes of 18, 6, 6 and 25 yards and finished off the drive himself with a 1-yard run to make it 20-17.

With the Jets out of timeouts, the Lions certainly did their part to assist in the comeback by inexplicably passing on third-and-6 from their 38 instead of going with the run and taking time off the clock. The Jets got the ball back at their 22 with 1:40 left and drove to the Lions' 18 before Folk kicked the tying field goal on the final play of regulation.

In overtime, the Jets opened in the shotgun, as per their quarterback's entreaty. After a first-down incompletion, with the ball at the Jets' 32, Sanchez dropped back, looked to his right, then saw Holmes streaking down the middle on an "in" route. He nestled the ball perfectly into Holmes' arms at the 50, and he sprinted to the Lions' 16 to finish off a 52-yard play.

Three plays later, Folk won it with a 30-yard field goal, putting the Jets in a first-place tie at 6-2 with the Patriots, who lost to the Browns. The Jets now get a crack at the Browns, but they'd be foolish to think they can keep getting away with this offensive inconsistency much longer.

"Nobody said we played well today, because the truth of the matter is we didn't," Edwards said. "We did what we had to do at the end to win the game, but playing your tougher opponents, your more consistent opponents, this isn't good enough."

He's right about that. If the Jets plan to take this thing as far as they insist they're capable of, this can't keep happening. Especially with the likes of the Patriots, Dolphins and Steelers coming up. And, for that matter, the Browns.