Jets' offense takes huge step backward

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Cue that Jay-Z theme song, the one the rapper sampled from the famed musical starring everyone's favorite red-haired little girl. It was truly "A Hard Knock Life" for Mark Sanchez last night. A brutal one, in fact.

The second-year quarterback struggled while leading the first-string offense in three series before the unit departed after a quarter-plus of time on the field. The backups didn't do much either as the Jets beat the Panthers, 9-3, in a preseason game at Bank of America Stadium.

"I told John Fox it looked like a pillow fight out there with both offenses struggling a bit,'' Jets coach Rex Ryan said. "You're going to have days like that. There are going to be games when the defense is going to have to pick up the offense. Maybe next week the offense will have to pick up the defense."

Sanchez certainly will have to be better than he was last night for that to be the case. He looked more like the unsure rookie who hurled 20 regular-season interceptions a season ago. His timing was off - especially on screen plays - and so was his accuracy.

Sanchez was 5-for-10 for 12 yards. He was sacked twice and should have been picked off twice. The Jets' offense mustered only 33 net yards and three first downs with Sanchez at the helm, and 20 of those came on a run by LaDainian Tomlinson.

Sanchez also failed to put the Jets in good position to cash in on three Carolina turnovers, settling for a pair of Nick Folk field goals to grab a 6-0 advantage in the second quarter before he was yanked along with the rest of the first-string offense.

"I felt like we didn't quite get into a rhythm like we wanted to," Sanchez said. "I think we put ourselves in third-and-long a couple of times and it makes it easy for teams, especially in the preseason, just to drop eight in the red zone or just split a safety, defend and make you throw underneath. That's what we did. I'm happy I didn't force anything down the field, but at the same time, we need to be better on first down."

Sanchez was shaky right from the start, getting sacked by Everette Brown on his first pass attempt. He was nearly intercepted on his third pass and probably should've been. Facing a third-and-10 at the Jets' 25-yard line, Sanchez threw a poor pass into double coverage while trying to fire a strike to Braylon Edwards on a long in route. Chris Gamble jumped the throw but dropped the ball, handing Sanchez his first gift.

The Jets got a reprieve when Steve Weatherford's 40-yard punt bounced off the heel of Jordan Pugh while he tried to block for Carolina returner Armanti Edwards. Lance Laury recovered the muffed punt at the Panthers' 35-yard line, setting up a golden scoring opportunity.

Sanchez & Co. went a grand total of 10 yards on seven plays, breaking the scoreless tie on Folk's 43-yard field goal.

"Sometimes, especially in the regular season, the games start like that," Jerricho Cotchery said. "Sometimes they start slowly. So it's the preseason and we weren't able to play a whole game to get turned things turned around.''