Film Study: Mark Sanchez
It’s the day after, which means it’s time to break down the film thanks to the tremendous NFL GamePass feature over at NFL.com.
First up on the film review is quarterback Mark Sanchez.
The stats:
2/7, 52 yards, 1 TD
The rundown:
Sanchez completely disregarded a wide-open Riley Cooper underneath for an easy catch-and-run on the first play. Yet, he decided to go down the field for an incompletion.
Sanchez’s next miss to Darren Sproles on a cross pattern was even worse the second time around.
I’m not really sure how he missed the five-yard throw. He had a fairly clean pocket with room to step up if he wanted and a clear lane to see Sproles, who had a few yards on his defender.
The second series started with a beautiful pocket created by the first-team line. Sanchez had all day, stepped up and overthrew Jordan Matthews over the middle. All he had to do was lead Matthews to the right as he was crossing over the middle. Had he him in the stride, the second-year man could have broken it for a big gain.
Sanchez made a heads-up play when he decided to scamper out of the pocket and pick up the first down on a 3rd and 5. He did have Brent Celek open on an underneath cross, but the lane he had to run through was too hard to pass up. Good call by him.
The following play, the Colts rushed just two. The receivers were pretty much blanketed across the board and had Sanchez tucked and run, he would have gotten nothing more than a yard or two. He took a shot to Nelson Agholor on a post-route over the middle about 10 yards down the field.
He threw it behind him a bit, forcing him to lose his step on the corner and allow for a breakup.
The Eagles got to 1st and 10 just shy of midfield. Sanchez dropped back once again with great protection. He failed to see Celek wide open five yards down from the scrimmage with just one man to beat who was seven yards off of him. Fortunately, Sanchez saw Matthews with a step on his man a little deeper down the field than Celek for the first down. The pass, though, was once again high.
A few plays later, Sanchez had his worst miss. On a read-option with Darren Sproles, Sanchez kept the ball going to his left. He saw Matthews down field with not one man on him on a crossing route. Sanchez threw it a little bit unorthodox as he was running to his non-throwing side. The ball sailed high and wide from Matthews for what would have been an easy touchdown.
The next (and last) play, though, went for a touchdown. It was a quick comebacker to Agholor. The pass was a little high, though. Fortunately for Sanchez, Agholor has some extreme talent when the ball gets in his hands as he burned his man despite having to reach up-and-back to snag the ball out of the air.
The conclusion:
This was a dismal effort by Sanchez. He was fortunate that 34 of those 57 yards came on what was not a great throw to Agholor, who scooted for about 30 yards after the catch.
There really weren’t any excuses in this one. For example, Tim Tebow was working with receivers who reportedly forgot their routes and an offensive line that was blown up on multiple plays. Meanwhile, Sanchez worked with a fairly clean pocket thanks to the Eagles’ front five. He didn’t get hit much, either.
He had open receivers to work with, such as Cooper on the first play, but decided to push his luck on a more dangerous pass. Perhaps he’s feeling a little off about this whole Sam Bradford situation, and that he doesn’t really have any chance of starting like he believed he had at one point.
Sanchez had the weakest performance of the three Eagles quarterbacks and possibly the fifth weakest among all six passers who saw the field between the two sides.
This was not a good start for Sanchez.
Kyle Phillippi is the Philadelphia Eagles beat writer for About.com. You can follow him on Twitter, @Kyle_Phillippi. Be sure to LIKE our Facebook page!