New York Daily News: New York Jets rookie QB Mark Sanchez proves he's worthy of Broadway stage

New York

Mike Lupica

Sunday, January 10th 2010, 4:00 AM

Jets' wild-card win

Who was the MVP of the Jets' win over the Bengals in the AFC wild-card game?

CINCINNATI - They got the kid to play like this, in games like this. The Jets got him to be a star, for them and their fans in Jersey and for New York. They worked the kid out in Southern California when they were deciding whether to trade up and draft him and Rex Ryan, a coach you may have heard of, said the kid didn't miss a throw. The Jets really got Mark Sanchez to win them their first Super Bowl since Joe Namath, the last star kid they had at quarterback. And Saturday, Paul Brown Stadium, Cincinnati, first pro playoff game of his life, Mark Sanchez made you believe he will do just that, beat everybody some day the way he beat the Bengals.

"One of these days, (Sanchez) is going to be the biggest guy we've got on this team," Rex Ryan said when it was over, 24-14 Jets. "The best. And maybe that day is coming sooner rather than later."

Then the big coach who backed it all up for another week, said this about his rookie quarterback: "We know this guy is gonna be a big-time guy."

And when Sanchez followed his coach to the podium, somebody asked him what he was thinking after Cedric Benson ran away from the coach's defense and made it 21-14 in the fourth quarter. Made it look like a game even though it wasn't.

"Let's go," Sanchez said. "Let's play. Let's go score some points."

And before you knew it he was rolling to his left and finding Dustin Keller wide open down the field and doing what he had done all day, which means throwing the ball exactly where he aimed it. And then the Jets were kicking the field goal that made it 24-14. Sanchez would end up 12-for-15 on the day and 182 yards and if Braylon Edwards doesn't drop a sure touchdown from Sanchez, 41 yards away, first quarter, the numbers are even gaudier than that.

Rookie head coach for the Jets Saturday, rookie quarterback. And rookie running back, too. Shonn Greene, a third-round pick out of Iowa, another guy the Jets traded up to draft, was a big-time guy himself Saturday, running for 135 yards on 21 carries, running 39 yards around left end for the Jets' first touchdown when it was 7-0, Bengals. The last time the Jets won a playoff game in Cincinnati, 26 years ago exactly, Freeman McNeil ran for 211 yards. Greene didn't get to 200 Saturday because Thomas Jones got some carries, too, scored a touchdown himself. But Greene got enough. All day.

And made a prophet out of the big coach.

"You ask him," Ryan said. "I told him before the game, 'Son, I think you can get 150 yards today.'"

But in all the important ways, this was Sanchez's coming-out party, Sanchez helping win the game all day long instead of just trying not to lose it. This is what Mike Tannenbaum, the general manager, saw in him. When it was 7-7, Sanchez rolled to his right and waited for Keller to come open across the field, threw him a perfect ball, watched Keller tightrope his way into the end zone from 10 yards out to put the Jets up a touchdown.