The New York Jets' team scrimmage Saturday night was scheduled to go from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. ET. It wrapped up around 7:15, perhaps out of mercy to the offense.
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The offense didn't move the ball, and Jets coach Rex Ryan said after the practice that wide receiver Santonio Holmes might have broken a rib (the team later said he didn't).
The rough night didn't end there. Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News noted that Tim Tebow ran four drives without completing a pass, going 0 for 3 with a sack and two fumbled QB-center exchanges. Ouch. Tebow also ran three times for 14 yards. (And he didn't have a chance to hone those red-zone skills, although he did hit safety Eric Smith on a pass off a fake punt.)
Mehta noted that Mark Sanchez wasn't a ton better, although he led the Jets' offense to one touchdown on his four drives. Overall, he completed 11 of 16 passes for 82 yards and one touchdown, with three sacks thrown in. So the Jets tried to pass 19 times with Sanchez and averaged under 5 yards per play. That's pretty rough.
We know this is only a scrimmage. We also have watched enough "Hard Knocks" episodes to know it means a lot to the coaches. It's no surprise the Jets' defense is dominating the offense because we've heard similar accounts throughout the month.
Rex Ryan will want to see some positive momentum out of his new Tony Sparano-led unit before breaking camp.
