Farrar: More Playaction in 2010
Rex Ryan made it quite clear that the Jets will give Mark Sanchez more opportunities to throw the ball in his sophomore year (those words would be supplemented by the additions of Holmes, Edwards and LT). For the time being, the Jets will remain a run-first team but Doug Farrar of Yahoo! Sports makes a strong case for Ryan to get some more playaction involved in 2010.
Sanchez had a lot to learn in his first professional season, but one thing he had from the start was a preternatural ability to sell play-action. This had its roots in Sanchez’s collegiate days on a pro-style offense at USC and blossomed with the Jets’ strong rushing attack. With defenses understandably tilted to stop the run, fakes to the backs were going to be very effective. Many young quarterbacks can turn those seemingly simple mechanics into a debacle. Not Sanchez, who was always fluid and convincing with the fakes. The Jets went with play-action on 25 percent of their pass plays, fourth-highest in the NFL, and they averaged 6.4 yards per pass play or scramble when they used it, as opposed to 5.5 when they didn’t.
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On the play [vs. New England], the Jets had first-and-10 at their own 44-yard line. Cotchery (89) was lined up wide right, and the Jets had an offset-I formation with a six-man line. This was another aspect to New York’s successful use of play fakes – they’d frequently use run-action, firing their linemen out in run-blocking looks to add to the deception, and they did so on this play. The fake to halfback Thomas Jones behind the line of scrimmage gave [Guy] Guyton pause, and Cotchery the free release at the second level to haul the ball in at the New England 38. That’s about where safety Brandon Meriwether (31) and cornerback Jonathan Wilhite(notes) (24) crashed into each other as they converged on Cotchery, letting the receiver slip through and continue the play until Guyton finally brought him down at the 11. After a 2-yard Thomas Jones run, Sanchez used play-action again to find tight end Dustin Keller(notes) for a 9-yard touchdown.
The Jets’ aerial attacks won’t ever be mistaken for the Colts or Saints. That’s not what they’re good at, and it’s not what they want to do. The 2010 Jets want to marry their smashmouth approach to a passing game a bit better than “just good enough,” and putting Mark Sanchez in different play-action scenarios is key to making that happen.
19 Responses to Farrar: More Playaction in 2010
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The Jets had almost 100 more rushing attempts than the next closest team (rushing attempts) in 2009. I’m surprised that they were only the 4th most Play Action/Pass Attempt team. I would think they should have been #1 by far considering the number of actual runs they did.
I’m glad Schotty has said he’s going to commit to more play action this year because Sanchez looks very comfortable outside the pocket on those plays.
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It’s always been a big belief here that as Sanchez matured so would the play-action game. That’s a skill that takes time to develop, and as we all know Sanchez is very green (and not just his jersey, GET IT!?). I’m sure this has been a big piece of their offseason workouts and hopefully with guys like Braylon & Holmes (who can forget Braylon streaking up the sideline for that huge TD in the AFC title game after the play-action double-move?) the play-action will prove a deadly part of the Jets’ arsenal.
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The best play fake I saw was against the Phins, where he faked it to TJ, and ran it in himself, and no one saw him with the football. There were people on Miami that were saying they had the ball on the bottom of the pile while Sanchez was spiking it 5 yards away.
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The Jets and particually Sanchez used play-action to almost perfection last season during the playoffs. I think thats why Dustin Keller was such a force in the post season.
I would expect that to continue and expand this season.
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I’m not sure they really CAN do more playaction. Weren’t they already leading the league in that area? How much more can they really do? And wouldn’t it be nice to actually let Sanchez throw from a pocket ON balance at least occasionally?
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The article says they were 4th in percentage at 25% of their pass plays being play action. Considering how few times they passed the ball I’d say they were far from the top in straight count.
More play action is more than welcome.
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But it’s really about percentage not total number. It isn’t really fair to compare their total number of play action passes when they ran the ball more than anyone else. If them being 4th in percentage of play action passing is true, then that surprises me because I remember hearing that they were on top. But again, I think Sanchez would benefit from being able to just stand and throw from a set position being able to use the momentum of his body going FORWARD instead of sideways. I’m not saying to scrap the play action, I’m just saying I don’t think they need any more, they just need more passing in general.
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Not all PA passes are rollouts, though. A very big portion of them were straight drop-backs. It’s more about freezing the DBs for a split second than anything else. Sanchez would get plenty of play action passes where he gets to drop back as opposed to roll out, or at least judging by last season that’s what I’d expect.
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That is true, but I’d still like to see- at least occasionally- just spreading out the receivers and seeing what kind of havoc Sanchez can cause. Especially with all the speed the receivers have. I just want to see less conservative offensive play calling, it had me pulling my hair out last season.
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Bent says: I feel sorry for Schotty sometimes. Some people, like you, are tearing their hair out because the playcalling is too conservative, yet others are saying why don’t they just keep it on the ground (especially after the Bills and Saints games).
All these new weapons are only going to make his job harder IMO, although I like the utopian world of having a team that can beat you in a multitude of ways.
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Yeah I see what you’re saying, but part of the advantage of the offense is they know what they’re doing and the defense doesn’t. But the Jets offense didn’t have that advantage last season. From my couch I was able to predict the exact play a good 75% of the time. I’m pretty sure the expert defensive coordinators could do the same and most likely even better than I could. Man you have no idea how happy I was when he finally let Brad Smith throw the ball on the reverse! And look how well it worked!
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Bent says:
Devil’s advocate: maybe it worked because they waited so long to do it. If you did it more often, how long before Smith’s inexperience throwing the ball against NFL defenses causes a turnover in a big spot?
I take your point though, they can be much more versatile this year. I happen to like ground and pound though, so I hope they don’t move too far away from that!
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“The Jets went with play-action on 25 percent of their pass plays, fourth-highest in the NFL”
And since they didn’t pass very much, I would assume that means they’re lower than fourth in terms of actual play-action plays.
There’s room to grow in this area, as they didn’t really utilize it much early in the year.
Sanchez having balanced throws from the pocket will come when he gets better pocket presence & awareness. A lot of his scrambles and sacks could have been avoided if he was more experienced in the pocket.
These things will come, he’s got the tools for sure.
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and I noticed that Sanchez looked much more comfortable last year on rollout plays.
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Anyone have a list of who playactioned the most? I’d have to guess the Colts. We pounded the rock so much last year and threw so little that being 4th sounds right to me.
If we pass more this year I’m fine with it assuming the playaction is well represented, it’s a great luxury when you have a strong running game.
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With LT and Mcknight, look for more dumpoffs and screens. Considering Green and TJ had only 10 pass caught between them, that should be a huge area of improvement for the passing game and Sanchez.
yup, and I believe that Schottenheimer has told reporters that that area is something the team is going to do more of in the coming year.