Joe Girardi teaches Mark Sanchez how to slide
The New York Jets and quarterback Mark Sanchez face the Buffalo Bills in Toronto on Thursday night.
In their first matchup of the season, Sanchez had his worst professional performance in which he threw five interceptions with a quarterback rating of 8.3.
(To put a QB rating of 8.3 in context, the career low for Raiders QB JaMarcus Russell is 17.4.)
On the season, the Bills have 21 interceptions, which is second only to the Saints (22). In addition to the challenge of facing the Bills' ball-hawking secondary, he has an injury to his left knee, which coach Rex Ryan calls "sore."
"I know he's sore, so we'll see how that goes," Ryan said. "It's a short week ... but he finished the game. I thought he was still moving around pretty good, so hopefully he'll be 100% when we play."
Today Sanchez got some sliding lessons from Yankees manager Joe Girardi, per Rich Cimini of the NY Daily News.
From Girardi, he said that he learned "(how to) hook my leg, because I wear that brace on my left leg so you don’t want to hook that leg into the ground because it might get stuck. He showed me how to do it with the opposite leg and hook that leg under. He showed me how to protect the ball while I am sliding and try not to fall on one side or the other on my shoulder, just absorb the blow with my butt and my legs. It was important for me to learn that and I really appreciated it."
So, what's next for Sanchez? Perhaps Ryan will have Kobayashi or Joey Chestnut teach Sanchez how to eat hot dogs.
