But Mark Sanchez is the reason the Jets lost to the Ravens, 34-17. He was really dreadful, with three of his four turnovers returned for touchdowns and the other setting up a field goal.

– Gary Myers, N.Y. Daily News.

Sanchez did not play well. That’s true. He fumbled twice and made the terrible, desperate decision to try to force the ball to Santonio Holmes on what wound up a coffin-nailing interception and touchdown by Lardarius Webb.

But there’s just no way “Sanchez is the reason the Jets lost to the Ravens.” His gaffes all came thanks to awful, awful play from his offensive line. It’s easy to point the blame at the handsome, GQ-model of a quarterback when everything goes wrong, in part because no one was expecting much from Colin Baxter, Wayne Hunter and the Jets’ battered offensive line.

Think about it this way, though: If Sanchez and Joe Flacco changed places yesterday, and Sanchez helmed the Ravens’ offense instead of the Jets’ “offense,” which team would have come out on top? The Ravens, of course. Flacco made his share of bad throws and poor decisions, but had way more time with which to make them. Plus, the Jets’ inability to run the ball inside forced them to throw, which combined with their struggle to slow the Ravens’ pass rush to leave Sanchez looking like a three-legged (but still handsome) deer limping in Haloti Ngata’s crosshairs.

The Ravens have a strong defensive front, no doubt, and a series of schemes that confounded the Jets’ linemen. But none of the Jets’ front five — not even the usually great D’Brickashaw Ferguson — adjusted well enough to keep Sanchez from getting crushed on almost every passing play. And now that the line has been exposed as a glaring weakness, every defensive coordinator in the NFL should be thumping his chest over the opportunity to showcase his front seven and bolster his resume.

The small, personal upside to this is that it seems to have drawn into public consciousness the importance of center Nick Mangold to the Jets’ offense. As a former center, I’ve been barking Maddenisms for years about the value of a great blocker and strong communicator in the middle of a line only to be drowned out fantasy-guru types shouting about this quarterback’s arm strength and that runningback’s elusiveness. Truth is, if your line sucks so does your offense. That’s the story for the Jets right now.

Until Mangold gets healthy or the rest of the line makes some major improvements, Mark Sanchez will continue looking frightened and awful. Then when Mangold returns and the line play improves, we’ll hear all about the Sanchise Redemption and the Return of the Poise. And that will be welcome, because no one should look that bad on the field and this good off of it: