New York Jets coach Rex Ryan Monday defended both his beleagured offensive leaders, quarterback Mark Sanchez and offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer.
“I have a huge amount of confidence in both guys. There’s no doubt. I’ve stated over and over my feelings about Mark Sanchez. And I’ve said it before, no quarterback’s going to look great when that’s all you do and you fall behind and things like that, but it wasn’t Mark’s best day by any stretch of the imagination, but we know he’s done it. And he’s been doing it. We have great confidence in him and I have great confidence in him,” Ryan said.
Both the quarterback and coordinator have been under fire after Saturday’s loss to the New York Giants in which an erratic Sanchez passed the ball 59 times.
“Obviously we don’t want to be that kind of team. And I said before that we were not built for that, meaning we need to run the ball more,” Ryan said. " Sometimes when the score gets to what it is, you have to throw a little more than you want. It’s easy to look back after the game at the facts and say, ‘Well we were running the ball well. We should’ve run it more.’ That’s the way it is, sometimes."