Mark Sanchez was almost immediately asked during his spot on The Dan Patrick Show Tuesday if he thought Josh Allen would ever win a Super Bowl. It didn’t take long for the NFL on Fox analyst, who’s made two AFC Championship game appearances of his own, to deliver a resounding yes.
The former New York Jets stated that he agrees that Allen played well in the AFC Divisional Round, despite the narrative being pushed by some sports media outlets. He discussed this topic during a recent debate between his former coach, Rex Ryan, Dan Orlovsky, Ryan Clark, Shannon Sharpe, and Stephen A. Smith. The discussion questioned whether Allen played well enough in the game, but Sanchez refused to subscribe to that viewpoint.
“I can’t subscribe to that — I just can’t,” said Sanchez. “I think he played well enough to win.”
In the Buffalo Bills’ 27-24 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs this past Sunday, Allen completed 26-0f-39 passes for 186 yards with a touchdown. He also rushed for 72 yards on 12 carries and added two rushing touchdowns. He was responsible for all three of Buffalo’s touchdowns and got them in position to tie the game with less than two minutes left.
“I thought Ryan Clark made a really good point about when you go get that gold jacket and you give your acceptance speech, the person presenting you doesn’t have to say much,” Sanchez said. “But everybody in the crowd when they look at Tom Brady is going to remember the Julian Edelman catch, some big kicks by (Adam) Vinatieri, some amazing throws by Tom Brady, amazing reads, amazing deliveries, diving catches by (Rob) Gronkowski, defensive stops an interceptions that put him in a good place.
“And he took advantage of it. Yes, he’s the trigger man. Yes, he’s the guy, and he’s going to get all the blame and all the praise, and that’s the way it goes.
“But this notion that Josh didn’t play well enough, that’s just crazy to me. I mean, he played well enough to win twice now and got let down by the rest of the team. And he wore it — just wore it on the chin; no problem.
“And he wore it on the chin earlier in the year when he wasn’t taking care of the football, and people said, ‘Oh, he’s trying to be Superman. He needs to just chill and run the system and then pick your spots to make your big plays.’ Well, that’s what he did and now he didn’t play well enough.”
Sanchez said that he doesn’t like the double standard there.
“And then somebody made the point about Patrick Mahomes: ‘We wouldn’t be saying this about Patrick. We’d be saying he didn’t play well,” Sanchez added. “That’s not true. We said his guys have been dropping the ball all year. So, that one, I have a hard time stomaching that. He just needs a little bit of help…Don’t tell me Josh didn’t play well. C’mon man, that’s crazy.”
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.