Once again, Mark Sanchez apologized for his demeanor on the sideline. Only this time it was for hot dogging. Literally.

Shaking off his worst start in his very young career, Sanchez ran for one touchdown and threw for another one before he took time to have a snack during the final minutes of the Jets 38-0 win on Sunday over the Raiders.

Last week Sanchez was criticized for appearing dejected while on the sideline in the Jets overtime loss to the Bills. He threw five interceptions in the game. This week he appeared quite happy about his performance and was caught on camera trying to snack on a hot dog towards the end of a blowout game.

He said that he wanted to apologize for it. I wasn’t feeling too good and didn’t eat a lot before the game. I was feeling kind of queasy. I should have had a bar or something but somebody offered me a hot dog. I just grabbed it and did try to be discreet. Obviously I wasn’t discreet enough. I should not have done it, and it will not happen again.

The Jets game plan was to take a lot of the pressure off of Sanchez. They were able to do that. They forced four turnovers and also became the very first team in thirty four years to rush for a minimum of 300 yards two games in a row. It occurred after they lost Leon Washington indefinitely due to his broken right leg.

Two of the Jets first three drives started on Oakland’s four yard line following JaMarcus Russell turnovers. They set up runs for touchdowns by Thomas Jones as well as Sanchez.

Sanchez said, it makes it very easy for the offense when the defense plays like that. Hats off to our defense. They had a great game shutting that team out. It doesn’t matter who we are playing. The accomplishment is big time for our team.

Things got so bad for the Raiders that Russell, Oakland’s former No. 1 overall draft pick, got benched during the first half after he committed three turnovers early. The home loss was Oakland’s most lopsided in the Raiders (2-5) fifty year history. It was the fifth home shutout ever. Four of them have occurred over the last four seasons. The 39,354 crowd was the team’s smallest since returning in 1995 to Oakland.

Richard Seymour, defensive lineman, who earlier that week had stated that he though Oakland would make it to the playoffs said, I don’t think that today we could have defeated a high school team.

Shonn Greene, rookie, rushed for 144 yards and scored twice, while Jones ran for 121 yards in 26 carries. The Jets had 316 total rushing yards.

On the very first play from the line of scrimmage, Calvin Pace was able to beat Khalif Barnes, right tackle, to sack Russell and force a fumble. Marques Douglas recovered the ball at the four yard line. Eventually Jones scored on fourth down from the one.

Then Russell, who was being pressured heavily by David Harris, overthrew a pass that got intercepted by Jim Leonhard who returned the ball 44 yards down to the four yard line. Sanchez scored two plays later on a quarterback draw of three yards.

During the second half Sanchez got the passing game going with a 35 yard perfect strike over to David Clowney. But then it didn’t matter much, as the game was already a blowout. Sanchez went 9 out of 15 on passing for a total of 143 yards and didn’t have any interceptions.

Ryan said, Sanchez was great. He played very smart when he had the football. There were times when I think he could have hit the receiver with the ball but was making sure he didn’t get an interception. It was great seeing how he responded.

Coming into the game Oakland was full of confidence after their 13-9 win over the Eagles last week. On Thursday their week got even better when the district attorney of Napa County announced that he wouldn’t file charges on Cable for allegedly attacking one of his former defensive assistants.

However, once the game got under way, the good feelings ended. For the fourth game in five weeks the Raiders lost a game by a minimum of twenty points.

In this third season in the NFL, Russell has had 13 turnovers and only completed 46 percent on passing. The fans have reacted to his horrible start with heavy boos during the last three home games. He finally got benched late second quarter.

Cable said, early on in the game I thought Russell was out of sorts. I didn’t feel at that point that he could give us our best chance to succeed offensively so I made the move. He is still our starter. There isn’t any issue about that.

Russell went 6 out of 11 passing for a total of 61 yards along with a fumble and two interceptions. He didn’t agree with the assessment of his coach, stating that he felt fine but the results just weren’t there.

Russell said, I haven’t been in in that kind of situation before. At first it was kinda shocking.

Bruce Gradkowski, backup quarterback, lost a fumble as well that ended a potential scoring drive. During the closing minutes he also failed converting a fourth down and goal play.

Notes
Last season the Jets lost all four West coast games, including an overtime loss in Oakland. Buffalo was the last team that ran for over 300 yards two games in a row. They accomplished that in 1975.