New York still in our sights - It's 'Just don't lose, baby' time for New York Jets' rookie QB Mark Sanchez

New York

Gary Myers

Saturday, December 19th 2009, 6:27 PM

Rex Ryan has worked the Jets back into the division and wild-card races by playing stone-age football: Run the ball, play defense, throw only when it's an emergency.

Simply it should be this:

Don't Blow It, Kid.

Don't Do Anything Stupid.

Don't Throw Away The Season.

Sanchez has taken the Jets for such a wild ride through the first 13 games that Ryan probably needs motion sickness pills to keep his lunch down. But after giving him too much flexibility early in the season, Ryan has put the training wheels back on his bicycle and hopes the young man can steer it straight without flying over the handlebars, especially with thechance that it will be snowing during the game.

His job is pretty simple today in what could be messy conditions. The Jets don't need him to win the game; they just don't want him to lose it.

Ryan needs nothing fancy from Sanchez. The Jets have the NFL's No. 1 ranked defense and No. 1 running game. That is a formula that usually results in a record far better than 7-6, except when you have a rookie quarterback who leads the AFC with 17 INTs and sideline hotdogs consumed. It's a formula that should not fail in December, when cold weather is always a factor and now snow could be, too.

The Jets just need Sanchez to be the game manager Sunday. "This is huge, each week," Sanchez said.

Sanchez has a lot of growing up to do. He learned a painful lesson about listening to Ryan two weeks ago. Just 48 hours after Girardi taught him the finer points of the feet-first slide, Sanchez went flying head first for a first down in Toronto and landed hard on his right knee. He sprained his posterior cruciate ligament and was fortunate it only kept him out one game.

Maybe it's a good thing Sanchez now has a brace on his right knee to go along with the one he was already wearing on his left. It might make him less mobile and less inclined to take off like an 8-year-old chasing an ice cream truck.

This late in the year, Sanchez should have transitioned into a more prominent role in the offense. But everybody develops at their own pace. The experience he's gaining now will benefit the Jets next year. He has shown enough flashes in his 12 starts to see that he is going to be a very good player.