Jets Nation -- well, at least the tiny corner of Jets Nation here at SB Nation New York -- is up in arms about Tim Tebow only playing three snaps at quarterback for the New York Jets on Sunday in a 27-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Head coach Rex Ryan had to deal with the 'why didn't Tebow play more on offense' questions on Monday.
"I thought we were doing a great job offensively early in the game, especially the beginning of that game. Almost the entire first half, I thought we were moving the ball well. For us, we're always going to do what's in the best interests of (our) team, what (we) think is going to give (our) team a chance to be successful.," Ryan said. "We did have some Wildcat plays going into that game, but as the game went on, we're down by 10 points late in that game, I even thought about it. But it was more like, ‘Hey, we're down, let's see if we can't make some plays.' We knew we we're getting a lot of press coverage on the outside, we thought we could make some plays."
Translation: We were losing and Tebow can't throw.
"We've always said from day one that we can do it 20 times, 40 times, 10 times, two times, whatever, but we determine that. It's not just going to be that these specific things have to be lined up. It's just that that's exactly what happened in this game," Ryan said. "Does that mean that given the exact same scenario against a different opponent that we may or may not use it? That'll be (up to) us. We'll always do what we think is in the best interests of our football team."
As we pointed out earlier today, that meant sticking with Mark Sanchez, who completed a Tebow-esque 10-of-27 passes.