Florham Park, N.J. — Usually when an athlete steps away from the game for a while for whatever matter it may be, they sort of lose that step that they had in the prime of their career. WR Plaxico Burress looks to be not wanting to accept this fact on the field. The tall target for the Jets might just be their key to success on offense.

Like the Jets offense last night, Burress started off slow. He wasn’t making any sort of impact at all and some may have thought, what have we got ourselves into? It was unusual for his slow start, especially since he got off to such a quick one in the preseason game against the Bengals. It wasn’t Burress’ fault for not being used early. The offensive line was letting up some good pressure to the Dallas defense and their corners were covering well.

Big Plax stepped back on the stage last night and looked like he belonged once again. Lost a step? Didn't seem like it. (JetsInsider.com Photo)

“They had a great gameplan for us.” Sanchez said. ” They were down in the secondary, they were hurting in the secondary a little bit. They played hard, all their guys. Even though (Mike) Jenkins got hurt a little bit, he kept coming back in. He had a pretty good scheme for us….  Their D-line is probably one of the best we’ll see.”

As good as they were for most of the game, Bob Ryan’s Cowboy defense could not keep up with the Jets. The screw finally came lose when they scored 17 unanswered points. As soon as the offense started rolling, Burress began to turn it on as well. He started with the bullet pass from Sanchez to give them some room from their own endzone, and from there he kicked his game into gear. He was running crisp routes and making key blocks to open up big plays. He was playing like the Burress we remember from two and a half years ago. He ended the night with four catches for 72 yards and a 26 yard touchdown. After the touchdown reception he gave the crowd his signature bow like he was back on Broadway. Being back in the endzone is far away from where he was just a couple of years ago.

“It feels good to finally go out and play a regular season game.” Burress said. “It’s definitely a special time for my family and myself, (after) everything we’ve been through. (We’ve) just been waiting for this game for a long time. I’m just happy to be able to go out and make a few plays and help our team win the game. Mark (Sanchez) made a great throw. We felt like we had a mismatch with (Mike) Jenkins out. He just put it up there and I made a play.”

Sanchez was happy to connect with his newly acquired receiver and they seem to be getting on the same page early in the season. If it doesn’t work the first time, just keep knocking until the door finally opens.

“I missed him early in the game on a third down. We came back and we hit him for the touchdown, so that was big.” Sanchez said. “They gave us that same coverage, they tested us again. I missed it the first time, I knew we wouldn’t miss it again should we get the coverage. We got it and I made the most of it, and he made a heck of a grab.”

This team work that Sanchez and Burress had last night needs to continue week in and week out if they want their offense to step up and become better. Yes, they have Santonio Holmes, Derrick Mason and Dustin Keller at the wideout positions but the key to their success will be the big guy #17 especially in the red zone where Sanchez can just throw it up and Burress will come down with it.
 
 
 

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