Game Recap: Jets v. Saints

Saints: 24
Jets: 10

Record: 3-1

The Jets went into the Superdome and played their worst game of the year against the NFL's best team. Sanchez had his rookie moments and the running game never got going. Darren Sharper and the rest of the Saints defense played a great game and they deserve most of the credit for yesterday's win. The positive coming out of the game for the Jets is that the defense can stop anybody. The Saints high powered offense only managed 10 points and the defense gave the Jets a chance to win the game.

Game Ball:

There is always somebody who deserves the game ball, even after a loss. Darelle Revis played another incredible game today. As Ryan said in his post game press conference, the loss was a team effort but it sure didn't seem like Revis lost this game. He is everywhere on the field and can cover any wide receiver in any position. There should be nobody doubting his abilities at this point this year. Revis played a great game against Colston.

Thumbs Up:

• David Harris played another great game in the middle with 10 solo tackles and a key forced fumble against Reggie Bush that got the Jets back into the game. Without that forced fumble the Jets had no chance of making any sort of comeback in this game. Harris continues to prove that he is one of the best middle linebackers in the league with that game.

• Kerry Rhodes, with 8 tackles, was much more active in this game than he has been in previous ones. He was flying to the ball and making a lot of tackles.
  

• The rest of the defense played very well also. The Jets held the Saints to just 10 offensive points which is by far their lowest point total of the season. The defense went into a hostile environment against the best offense in the league and showed that they are Super Bowl caliber.
  

Thumbs Down:

• Mark Sanchez played a terrible game on Sunday. The two key moments in this game were miscues by him. The interception that Sharper returned for the touchdown occurred as the Jets were driving in Saints territory. This interception sucked any momentum that the Jets had gained on that drive. The other miscue was the fumble in the end zone that resulted in a touchdown for the Saints and a 17-0 lead. Sanchez needs to do a better job of getting rid of the ball after a certain period of time. If he does not do a better job of this he will be getting hit from the blind side and fumbling a lot more this season. Sanchez is allowed his rookie mistakes and we have to hope that he recovers and is ready for Miami next Monday night.

• The offensive line played terrible today and opened up no lanes for the running backs. The only good running plays of the game were a 15 yard touchdown for Thomas Jones and a few good runs by Shonn Greene. The line needs to start opening up more lanes for the running backs or Sanchez will never be able to open up the offense and play to the best of his abilities.
  

• Thomas Jones needs to get going this season or he will start to lose carries to Shonn Greene (assuming Greene is healthy). Greene looked much more explosive and did not go down after the first hit. Jones has been going down after the first hit the majority of the time and has not run well this season at all.

Overall Thoughts:

The Saints are the best team in the NFL and the Jets would have been right in it without the rookie mistakes from Mark Sanchez. This is the type of game where you realize that the Jets were never going to go 16-0. There was going to be a slip up for Sanchez and the rest of the team and it's better that it happened against a non-conference opponent on the road. Next week the Jets go into Miami on Monday night to play the Dolphins. I won't go into this game now but more will be coming later in the week.