EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Mark Sanchez and the New York Jets finally played like the team coach Rex Ryan says can win the Super Bowl.
Sanchez outdueled Tom Brady with a career-high three touchdown passes and the Jets overcame the loss of Darrelle Revis to a hamstring injury to beat the New England Patriots 28-14 on Sunday. Both teams are 1-1.
Coming off a week of questions about their performance on the field and their behavior off it, the Jets earned a victory they sorely needed against their AFC East rivals.
Six days after an awful outing in a season-opening loss to Baltimore, Sanchez looked every bit the part of the franchise quarterback. The second-year player completed a career-high 21-of-30 passes for 220 yards and connected with Braylon Edwards, Jerricho Cotchery and Dustin Keller for scores.
Cotchery caught a 2-yard touchdown pass from Sanchez with 38 seconds left in the third quarter, and Edwards caught the 2-point conversion toss to give the Jets their first lead of the game at 21-14.
LaDainian Tomlinson had a pretty 31-yard run, showing plenty of zip, to put the Jets at the Patriots 4 and set up the score.
With Brady trying to muster a comeback against his rivals, Jason Taylor sacked him and knocked the ball out of his hands with just over four minutes left, and Bryan Thomas recovered.
