Jets in Crisis: Ryan and Sanchez Unravel

Losing causes people to do stupid things. New York York Jets head coach Rex Ryan and quarterback Mark Sanchez have demonstrated that in recent days, as the Jets are in crisis mode, having lost five of their last six games.

On Monday, Ryan cried in a team meeting.  Soon after, he fired one of his coaches and release a backup cornerback.

Meanwhile, Sanchez was immature by setting up his own press conference and attempting to avoid questions after the Jets' frustrating loss on Sunday.

These actions are evidence of the turmoil the Jets are in.  These sorts of actions are never good, especially with several weeks to go until the regular season is over.

Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum should be very concerned with the way Ryan is approaching his team's slump. While everyone thinks the rookie head coach is showing his passion, his recent actions send the wrong message to his players, that he is frustrated with what is going on.

Players look for coaches to lead, to stand tall and direct them when the team is in a slump. They expect solutions out of Ryan, but so far, he hasn't been able to provide many answers.

When a coach starts losing it, players tune him out. Ryan must make sure he doesn't lose his player.

It's okay to cry in a spontaneous fashion, but if Ryan keeps doing it, well then this is nothing more than grandstanding, and that seems to be the case with what we have here.

Great coaches offer encouragement. When asked about the questionable coaching decision of Bill Belichick against the Colts last weekend, Junior Seau mentioned yesterday on SportsNet New York's Daily News Live that Bill Belichick expects his players to have a short memory about both good and bad times.

Ryan would have been better off discussing how this is an opportunity for the Jets to get back in the division race with a win against the Patriots. He should have preached about the importance of the game on Sunday.

The Jets head coach screwed up by firing defensive line coach Kerry Locklin and cutting Ahman Carroll. He made these moves in an attempt to cover himself and showed that he is doing something about the losing.

Making these moves will not make this team any better and it won't send a message to his players. These players are not smart enough to execute or perform certain plays. They can't seem to finish so it's ridiculous to blame them.

As for Mark Sanchez, one wonders what exactly was he thinking when he held that bizarre press conference after the game. He rambled incoherently when he talked about what took place in the game, and then he got testy with some of the questions that reporters asked of him.

That's not how a quarterback should be behaving, and it's a good bet Ryan and Tannenbaum talked to Sanchez about it.

Sanchez has shown flashes of greatness on the field, but being a quarterback is more than just showing up on Sundays.

He needs to be a proper spokesman to his team and he needs to be held accountable when things go bad, not shy away or act like a fool. Answering questions when he has a bad game is part of his job.

This is not the first time he acted like a child. He cried and pouted in an awful performance against the Bills.

Sanchez will learn as he grows into the job, but it's certainly something the Jets don't want to see in a time like this.

Obviously, both the rookie coach and the rookie quarterback were going to have some rocky times in their first year, but that doesn't get them off the hook.

They should not have been so naive to think that a great start would be a steppingstone to a great season. A rookie quarterback experiences rough times during the course of the year, and as confident as Sanchez is, he had to know this was going to happen eventually.

What will make both Ryan and Sanchez successful is how they get out of this situation.

They can start by winning. That's always a tonic to these problems.

Also, they need to just accept responsibility and move on rather than let the losses get the best of them.

It will take experience for that to happen.

One can only hope these two learn something from their mistakes.