Mark Sanchez: Blame Everybody but New York Jets QB for Season Failure

For the first time in his young career, Mark Sanchez will not be in the NFL Playoffs. And for the rest of the AFC, that may be a good thing.

In six career playoff games, Sanchez is 4-2, and his list of wins is impressive. Road wins against future Hall of Fame quarterbacks Peyton Manning and Tom Brady, and two wins against former Pro Bowlers Philip Rivers and Carson Palmer.

Everything seemed to be in place for the Jets to make another playoff run.

Heading into their battle against the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jets were 8-5 and right in the thick of the playoffs.

Then the Eagles destroyed them 45-19. The following week in the battle of New York, the Jets fell flat offensively and lost their second straight game, 29-14.

In a must-win situation in the final game of the season, the Jets went south to Miami to play the Dolphins, a place where Sanchez has had success, never having thrown an interception in two career games at Miami.

On Sunday, Sanchez was beat up, roughed up and intercepted three times, including one inside the Dolphins 20-yard line with just under five minutes left to play. The end result was a Dolphin field goal that put Miami up 19-10 with just 2:21 left in the game.

Despite Sanchez rallying the Jets to a last-minute touchdown, the story on the 2011 New York Jets had been written. For a team that was expected to finally get over the hump of losing two straight AFC title games to get to the Super Bowl, their season came to a devastating and somber end.

No playoffs, no title shot, and nothing but questions left to be answered.

One of those is, what happened, and who's to blame for the Jets' failure?

Already blame has shifted over to Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez as reason numero uno for the Jets' failure—and for good reason. In the final three games of the season, Sanchez was less than stellar, throwing for five touchdowns and being intercepted five times.

The final six drives of the Jets' 2011-12 season included a pair of punts, three interceptions, and one touchdown in the final minute of the game.

Sanchez may well be to blame for the Jets three-game skid, but he wasn't without help. For one, the Jets didn't help Sanchez at the beginning of the season when they decided to part ways with wide receiver Braylon Edwards, who was the team's top deep threat.

With Edwards and Santonio Holmes, Sanchez had both a playmaker and a deep threat. The duo of Holmes and Edwards helped Sanchez grow at quarterback, as was evident by last season's surge of come-from-behind wins.

Without Edwards, the Jets turned to Plaxico Burress, fresh out of prison after serving two years for illegal possession of a hand gun.

Plaxico finished with 45 catches for 612 yards and eight touchdowns. Compared to Braylon Edward's 2010 season with the Jets of 53 catches for 904 yards and seven touchdowns, it's easy to say that Sanchez suffered a bit from the lack of a deep threat wide receiver.

Santonio Holmes put up identical numbers to his 2010 season with the Jets, but played in four more games.

Blame the Jets' dramatic drop in rushing attack for the 2011 season. In 2010, the Jets were fourth in the NFL averaging 148 yards rushing a game. In 2011, they were 22nd at just 105.8 yards—almost a 42-yard difference.

Running backs Shonn Greene and LaDainian Tomlinson combined for 1,680 yards in 2010. In 2011, they combined for 1,334. Tomlinson fell off by more than 700 yards and 144 carries compared to his 2010 numbers.

In the end, Mark Sanchez may be to blame for the Jets' final collapse. The numbers are proof-positive that when Sanchez needed to perform most, he didn't.

However, Sanchez also didn't have much help when it was needed the most. Without Braylon Edwards—who wasn't re-signed because the Jets supposedly had used all their wide receiver money on signing Santonio Holmes back in July—Sanchez had to settle for short and intermediate passes.

Proof? Against the Buffalo Bills November 27, Sanchez finished with four touchdown passes and just 180 yards. Eight times on the year Sanchez threw for under 200 yards.

No running game. No deep threat. No chance.

Defenses clamped up on Sanchez and forced him into high-risk passes just to try and get the ball moving.

Edwards ended up signing a one-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers for just $1 million—a complete contradiction of their justification for letting Braylon Edwards walk.

Blame Mark Sanchez if you want, but before you do, blame management for disrupting a good thing Sanchez had going with Braylon Edwards and Santonio Holmes.