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Schwartz: Recapping The Jets' Green And White Scrimmage From Cortland

By Peter Schwartz
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When you conduct a scrimmage with live tackling, the one thing that you pray for as a football team is that nobody gets hurt.

But on a third down catch that moved the chains, Santonio Holmes was tackled by Antonio Cromartie and suffered a rib injury during the Jets' Green and White scrimmage on Saturday night in Cortland.

Initially, the Jets feared the worst.

"There's some concern that he may have broken a rib," said head coach Rex Ryan after the scrimmage.

However, a little over an hour later, the Jets announced that X-rays were negative, and that Holmes would be day to day.

"Whew!" was something heard from Jets coaches, players and staff from Cortland to Canton, Ohio, where owner Woody Johnson and general manager Mike Tannenbaum were watching Curtis Martin get inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

The Jets won't rush Holmes back, but clearly their already thin group of wide receivers resembles a MASH unit. It wouldn't surprise me if the Jets might look around for a wide receiver.

Holmes had three catches for 22 yards.

Mark Sanchez had a good night. He was 11-of-16 for 84 yards, including a 22-yard connection with Dustin Keller and an eight-yard touchdown pass to Bilal Powell.

"The tempo was great and we were in and out of the huddle," said Sanchez. "We had a couple of penalties and a fumble, but no interceptions for the quarterbacks. So that's a positive."

Tim Tebow drew plenty of cheers when he came into the game for the first time. On offense, he was 0-for-3 and was "sacked" once. Defensive players weren't allowed to hit the quarterbacks. On special teams as the punt protector, Tebow completed a pass to Eric Smith. Tebow also had three rushes for 14 yards.

"I didn't get too many passes off today," said Tebow. "I felt like when I threw them I threw pretty accurately. It felt like we made some pretty good plays overall as an offense. We were going against a really good defense. We had fun out there."

Tebow's bomb to Dexter Jackson down the left sideline was just a bit overthrown and incomplete.

SCRIMMAGE JET LINERS
A crowd of 9,401 packed into SUNY Cortland Stadium.

Joe McKnight had a 15-yard scamper before coughing up the ball. The fumble was recovered by David Harris. Third-round pick Demario Davis, Aaron Maybin and Calvin Pace notched "sacks."

Fans started filing into the stadium at around 4 p.m. By around 5 p.m., most of the main side of the stadium was filled.

As early as 4:30, Jets Fest was filled with kids and the merchandise tent was jammed. I was going to get souvenirs for my kids, but if I waited on that line I would have been back in the stadium for next year's scrimmage.

To nobody's surprise, there were plenty of No. 15 Tebow jerseys in the crowd, but Sanchez was not devoid of his followers.

Pregame music included Billy Joel's "New York State of Mind" and Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive".

MANGOLD MAKES THE RIGHT CALL
Anyone want to guess where I'm heading?

"Thanks Rex, Woody, Mike and the rest of the @nyjets! Go @HolleyMangold! #GoUSA pic.twitter.com/gxZ3dlg6."

That was a tweet from Nick Mangold at 6:46 a.m. on Saturday morning. The Pro Bowl center was on his way to London to see his sister Holly represent the United States in weightlifting at the Olympics.

"The fact that his sister is competing in the Olympics is an amazing thing," said Ryan. "I'm happy that he's going."

It's not really a story that he's going. After all, how many times in one's life can you see your sister compete in the Olympics? What made it a story was that Mangold was insisting that he wasn't going to go because he had a job to do here in Cortland with the Jets.

"It's disappointing missing out on that," said Mangold back on July 26 when the Jets reported to training camp. "At the same time, I have a job to do and that's what I'm focused on. It's going to be really neat to be able to watch her compete on a world level. I couldn't be more proud."

Upon his arrival in Cortland, Mangold was photographed carrying a television into the dorms.

As it turns out he won't need the TV, as he'll get to see her compete in person, and that's a good thing.

But I can't help but wonder if Mangold knew all along that he was going to go. My feeling is that he didn't want to be a distraction. In fact, he stayed away from even talking to Holly about the Olympics.

"I don't want to add any undue pressure to her," said Mangold. "I don't talk to any of my family about football stuff, and I don't expect to talk to her about weightlifting."

Originally considered a prospect for the 2016 games, the 22-year-old is taking part in the +75kg/+165lbs (Super Heavyweight) competition on Sunday.|

"I always wanted to be an Olympic athlete," said Holly to the Dayton Daily News. "But I always thought I'd get it for diving or gymnastics. I always wanted to be one of those girls, but my body just didn't work out for that, so I had to go to a different sport."

Holly is five-foot-eight and weighs 374 pounds. She also has some football experience. Mangold became the first girl in Ohio's prep football history to play a down from the line of scrimmage when she was a reserve offensive lineman for Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio.

Good luck Holly!

TICKETS ANYONE?
The Jets certainly did the right thing by lowering some of the prices for the non-PSL seats in the upper level.

However, it seems as if there are still seats available. A former season-ticket holder received this email from a Jets ticket representative: "I see you used to have some season tickets with us. We have cut prices for season tickets to as low as $50.00 per game and $500.00 per season. If you are interested, give me an email or call on my direct line below. If I don't answer, I am either on the other line or busy throughout the office. Leave a voicemail with the best number to reach you and I will get back to you as soon as I can."

Translation: Plenty of good seats are still available!

The Jets are off on Sunday before returning to practice on Monday.

That's all for now! Check back soon for more!

Jets fans, did you trek up to Cortland to watch the scrimmage? What did you think? Let us know in the comments section below...

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