The New York Jets held their annual Green vs. White scrimmage Saturday at training camp in Cortland, and for the first time this season Gang Green Nation got to see starting quarterback, Mark Sanchez, and backup, Tim Tebow, go head-to-head. Overall, it was Sanchez that stole the spotlight, completing 11-of-16 passes with one touchdown. Tebow finished 0-for-3 with no interceptions.
"(It’s) just like your first scrimmage," said Sanchez. "There were ups and downs. From an offensive perspective, I thought the tempo was great. We were in and out of the huddle. There were a couple penalties and a fumble, but no interceptions from the quarterbacks, so that’s a positive. I thought we ran the ball well at times."
Despite not lighting up the stat sheet, Tebow felt things went well, too.
"I feel like they went pretty good. We’re dealing with a lot of unique situations (with) some guys out and stuff. For the most part, I felt like we did pretty good."
[Holmes Injured | Tebow Reaction | Sanchez Reaction]
Overall, said head coach Rex Ryan, it was good for his team to get out and hit somebody.
"I knew we’d have some ups and downs through practice, whether they were some good things offensively, good things defensively. But that’s to be expected," said Ryan. "I like getting the scrimmage in where you actually get the live tackling because the one thing you don’t want to do is show up to the first preseason game and all of a sudden you can’t tackle anybody. So, we kind of got that out of the way. That was good."
The day was highlighted by fourth-string quarterback, Matt Simms, son of former New York Giants signal-caller Phil, tossing a 31-yard touchdown pass near the end of the scrimmage. The play led to Ryan making a small joke out of the Jets' quarterback situation in his opening statement.
"Alright, first off, obviously this quarterback controversy with Matt Simms. Or was it Matt Simms or Phil Simms? I don’t know, but he looked pretty darn impressive."
Read more on the Jets at Gang Green Nation. Head over to our NFL hub page for additional news and analysis around the league.