I haven't heard a single person call Mike Tannenbaum to task for yesterday's defeat, but he deserves a portion of the blame for that debacle. When your quarterback goes 17 for 44, turns it over twice, and fumbles three other times that the offense recovered, it is logical to ask whether a team would be better served going to the backup. Rex Ryan says he considered it but felt Sanchez gave the team the best chance to win.
Ryan is right. The Jets had nowhere else to turn. Sanchez has played some terrific games this year. The best chance the club had was to hope for him to turn it around. The other options were Mark Brunell, who does not appear to have the arm strength to play effectively anymore and Kellen Clemens, who is not a quality NFL quarterback.
Tannenbaum is the guy who failed to address the backup quarterback position in the offseason. He brought in Brunell to be a mentor for Sanchez. That was fine, but he could have been a mentor as the third quarterback. The most important quality for a backup quarterback should be the ability to play football well.
You probably won't find a star on the backup market, but there were guys capable of playing adequate ball (Marc Bulger, Byron Leftwich). The way the defense was playing, adequate was all the Jets needed.
This was a game that screamed for a temporary change to give the team a shot in the arm. The Jets didn't have a realistic option, though.