Rex Ryan is using an old tactic to motivate quarterback Mark Sanchez: He has given back-up Mark Brunell some first-team reps in practice for the first time this season.
It wasn't a significant number. Brunell said he he took two reps yesterday, and four of the 40 snaps today. But the approach worked last December, spurring Sanchez to a late-season hot streak after back-to-back losses against New England and Miami, so the superstitious Ryan said he is trying the motivational ploy again.
The Jets have lost two straight, to New England and Denver, and Sanchez has thrown a pick-six in each loss.
"I know Mark Sanchez extremely well, I know how tough, that fighting spirit that he has," Ryan said. "And if it takes me to do this, and take a punch in the nose, I don’t care, I'll take it. But we've got to have it from him. He's the guy, he's my guy, and we have to have it from him. Everybody has to play that way. When he’s that way, we are extremely hard to beat."
Ryan said he could tell by Sanchez's body language that the third-year quarterback was not happy with the decision. Ryan also said that he and Sanchez have not spoken this week.
"He hasn’t talked to me," Ryan said. "For real, he has not said one word."
Sanchez said it was "not on purpose" that they had not talked. He called Ryan's move a "coaches' decision."
"I'm just trying to control what I can and that’s improve, make better decisions with the football," he said. "Taking the reps I have and doing well with them."
Last year, Sanchez got mad and resisted when the coaches put Brunell in during practice. But Sanchez said he did not act the same way this week.
"I've been through it before," he said. "There is no point."
Brunell said this year is different than last, because he was given more reps when Ryan used this tactic in 2010. Ryan had also considered benching Sanchez in the 10-6 Miami loss in Week 14 last year. Would he consider doing that this year?
"No. I'm not going to take him out," Ryan said. "He’s our quarterback. But don’t even write that, let him think it."
Ryan said some tension between the coach and the quarterback can be productive.
"Yeah, I think sometimes," Ryan said. "Because when you look at it, we’re close, no question. But I'm close with my kids, and I've got to rip them every now and then, so it’s the same thing. It's really not that, it's just -- he knows how I feel."
Sanchez agreed: "If you look at a lot of good ones, that always happens at some point. We're both competitive, we both want to win. We both have our own ways of going about things and that's all. It's a matter of winning, So, I'm not mad at him, I don't know where that came from. We're good."
Why did this motivational approach work last year and why does Ryan think it will work again? He said there is no direct cause-and-effect relationship.
"Nope, but we’re going with it," Ryan said. "I don’t think it really matters, but for some reason he got a little hot under the collar and gave that super competitive fighting spirit that we know he has."
