Quarterback Mark Sanchez was booed during the pregame festivities three weeks ago when the New York Jets hosted the Buffalo Bills.
Sanchez went on to toss four touchdowns that game in a fourth-quarter comeback and helped the Jets to another fourth-quarter win last week against the Washington Redskins.
Jets coach Rex Ryan has arranged for the offense to be announced Sunday instead of the defense (which was up in the original rotation) when New York hosts the Kansas City Chiefs. He expects a different type of reception from the crowd this time around.
"I think our fans definitely understand where we are," Ryan told the media Friday. "We’re fighting for our playoff lives, so they understand that. Have we made it easy to be a Jets fan all these weeks? Probably not like we’ve wanted to, but again, the one thing they know from our team is you’re going to get everything we have. Is it going to be good enough? We think it is. Sometimes, it’s not, but we’re going to lay it out there for us and for them. I think that our fans appreciate that.
"The fact that we’re going to have a double-take on introducing the offense, I want everybody to know that Mark Sanchez is a pretty good quarterback. I think it’ll be good. I think it’ll be a shot in the arm when he comes out to a bunch of applause, because I think that’s what will happen."
Ryan said earlier in the week that he expected a good crowd response to Sanchez's pregame introduction, so we'll chalk it up as a message from coach to the fans through the media. We'll see if it works Sunday.
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