DETROIT — Mark Sanchez threw a lot of passes high, low and wide.
When it mattered most, he found his target.
Sanchez connected with Santonio Holmes for 52 yards to set up Nick Folk’s 30-yard field goal 2:18 into overtime, lifting the New York Jets to a 23-20 win over the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
“He’s at his best when he’s not thinking and he’s just a California boy playing football,” Jets receiver Braylon Edwards said.
Sanchez scored on a quarterback sneak with 2:46 left in regulation and led a nine-play drive that set up Folk’s 36-yard kick to send the game into OT.
He successfully lobbied Jets coach Rex Ryan to run the two- minute offense in overtime.
“When I started running it, we got them on their heels,” Sanchez said. “It was obvious that we took over the game at the end.”
Knocking Matthew Stafford out of the game certainly helped the Jets take control.
Stafford threw two TD passes and ran for a score to give Detroit a 10-point lead before reinjuring his right shoulder and leaving the game with 5:19 left. Stafford separated his shoulder in the opener and was out until last week.
“You don’t want to hurt a guy, but that changed the game,” said linebacker Bryan Thomas, who tackled Stafford from behind and sent him crashing on his right shoulder. “I was just trying to make a play.”
Lions coach Jim Schwartz gave Sanchez extra time to run more plays on the game-tying drive when he called a pass on third down and Drew Stanton threw an incompletion, giving the Jets the ball with 1:40 left.
“I didn’t make myself clear enough that we shouldn’t worry about taking the lost yardage play right there because the clock obviously was important,” Schwartz said.
The Jets were stunned at Schwartz’s decision not to run the ball and take time off the clock when they were out of timeouts.
“They gave us about 40 more seconds to work with,” New York offensive tackle Damien Woody said. “That was huge.”
The Jets (6-2) took advantage against the Lions (2-6) and silenced a previously boisterous crowd at Ford Field.
“Obviously, we feel fortunate we got the win, but we don’t care — we’ll take it,” Ryan said. “That’s what good teams do, find a way to win.”
