Sanchez looks sharp in preseason opener

HOUSTON

Look at the bright side: As poorly as Mark Sanchez ran the Jets' offense in Friday afternoon's practice, when he looked as if it were the first practice of his rookie season, his performance in Monday night's preseason opener was downright brilliant.

Friday was one of those hit-the-wall days in which Sanchez couldn't get anything right against the Jets' defense. It happens, even to the best of them, and it happened to Sanchez. He was 10-for-23 with two interceptions during the team period, with cornerback Darrelle Revis and safety Jim Leonhard picking him off.

That first preseason game couldn't come fast enough.

"Just having a different-color facemask to look at is nice," Sanchez said. "It should clear some things up and it should tell us a lot about our team, especially our young guys."

Actually, it told you a lot about Sanchez, albeit in a very limited time frame. Playing just two series in the first quarter, Sanchez looked sharp in completing 6 of 7 passes for 43 yards. His only incompletion was on a pass to backup tight end Matthew Mulligan, and that pass hit Mulligan in the hands.

The Jets did bog down in the red zone, an issue they're determined to address, but the problem wasn't all Sanchez. On third-and-6 from the Texans' 10, he was sacked for a 5-yard loss, the result of a patchwork offensive line that was missing center Nick Mangold (stinger) and Brandon Moore (hip surgery) and had new right tackle Wayne Hunter adjusting to starting in place of the recently retired Damien Woody.

Sanchez again was sharp on the next drive, connecting with newly acquired Derrick Mason for 12 yards and hitting Mason again on a 5-yarder. Sanchez dropped back once more and wound up being sacked again. Sanchez got up but backup center Rob Turner didn't, suffering a leg injury on the play.

"Obviously, you don't like seeing the quarterback get hit," coach Rex Ryan said. "We gave up a couple sacks with that unit. That was disappointing."

No need to subject Sanchez to further punishment, so the Jets pulled in the horns from there and let Sanchez get to the sideline.

The one thing Sanchez wasn't able to do -- through no fault of his own -- was test out newly acquired receiver Plaxico Burress, who missed the game with an ankle sprain he suffered while training on his own shortly after signing with the Jets.

Burress' absence has been frustrating for all concerned, and the Jets hope he will return to practice this week. He has worked only minimally, not even completing a full practice. Not a good thing when you haven't played football in almost three years, nearly two of which were spent in prison on illegal weapons possession charges.

But Sanchez is confident he can establish chemistry with Burress, just as he has done with Mason, who finished with three catches for 21 yards. More importantly, Sanchez aims to raise his stature inside the locker room with all his teammates, and especially his coaches.

Ryan believes Sanchez is about to take a quantum leap, even if it means more heated moments like the one Sanchez described in a newly released interview in GQ magazine, in which Sanchez said he wanted to fight Ryan after the coach briefly considered benching him after a game against Miami.

"That was a point in the season where I wasn't playing well and Rex had talked about benching me," Sanchez said after Monday night's game. "You get two competitive people with each other -- look at Steve Young and George Seifert, Phil Simms and Bill Parcells. Part of the reason Rex drafted me is because I value this job and it's my life. If someone wanted to take that away from me, that's personal. Was I going to fight Rex? Obviously not. That would be like [Oscar] de la Hoya against George Foreman. He's out of my weight class. He'd probably kick my butt."

Maybe so, but there's no other quarterback Ryan would want right now. He believes in Sanchez, and he'll go into battle on Sundays with the quarterback believing that he's the right guy. Monday night was yet another small step in the direction Sanchez and Ryan want to go.