That was pretty much the way the Jets drew up their defense before the season started. They got a good push from their pass rush, run defense that held Maurice Jones-Drew in check, and typical shutdown coverage from Darrelle Revis that forced Luke McCown to look elsewhere — mostly to Jets’ defensive backs. Of course, McCown appeared blessed with a rare combination of awful judgment and stunning inaccuracy, often throwing in the general direction of but nowhere actually close to receivers in double coverage. The Jets made four interceptions and dropped a host of others en route to the 32-3 victory.

Brian Schottenheimer and the Jets’ offense continued running on most first downs, a frustrating pattern until you consider this: By my count Mark Sanchez was 6-of-8 for 74 yards and a touchdown while throwing on first down, success obviously aided by the Jaguars’ efforts to stop the run. And one of Sanchez’s two incomplete first-down pass flew over the head of a wide-open Plaxico Burress in the end zone, a failure in execution but neither in judgment nor play-calling.

Sanchez threw a couple of interceptions, one marked by a great defensive play, the other by a poor pass into traffic.

But the big issue looming for the Jets’ offense involves the health of center Nick Mangold, who left the game late in the first quarter with an ankle injury. Mangold’s replacement, rookie Colin Baxter, looked downright awful. Not only did he twice botch the snap counts, he got pushed around by Jacksonville’s defensive linemen and missed multiple blocks that led to broken plays.

It was Baxter’s first NFL game, so it’s reasonable to hope he will improve once he adjusts to the speed at the new level. But subbing in a replacement-level center for one of the game’s best will hamper the Jets’ ground game and ability to employ complex blocking schemes. Baxter only appeared competent in straightforward pass-blocking assignments. If Mangold is out for any extended period of time, the combination of Baxter and tackle Wayne Hunter will turn the offensive line, one of the Jets’ preseason strengths, into a weak spot.

The Cowboys gifted the Jets a win yesterday, but Gang Green deserves credit for accepting it graciously.

The good guys mustered only 45 yards on 16 carries on the ground but threw for 335, a modification in game plan that Rex Ryan insisted came not by design but due to the Cowboys’ effective defensive front.

After a shaky start, Mark Sanchez took advantage of Dallas’ depleted secondary whenever he had time to and cut down on the ill-advised throws he appeared prone to attempt in the early weeks of his first two seasons. Plaxico Burress showed little rust despite two seasons spent behind iron bars.

Fans will likely fret this week about Wayne Hunter’s shaky performance blocking — or attempting to block — DeMarcus Ware, but Ware is a rare talent capable of making even the league’s best tackles look lead-footed and overmatched. Better tests for Hunter will come in the next few weeks.

Darrelle Revis got beat one time, but looked typically awesome for most of the game. Antonio Cromartie: Less so.

Of course, it’s hard to read too much into this game because a) it’s one game and b) we have no idea if the Cowboys are good yet. They sucked for most of last year, but they’ve got talented players all over the place, plus a newish head coach and a new defensive coordinator.

The good news is the Jets are undefeated. It’d be nice for them to win a bit more convincingly (and cover the spread, for goodness sake), but the team and its fans will gladly take the victory.

Like, real football, not the stupid preseason or the draft or the fantasy gurutizing or the NFL Stay of Injunction Spectacular 2K11.

There’s been a bunch of talk in the news about the Jets’ home-field advantage — or lack thereof. Mike Salfino took a look and found that the big difference in the Jets’ play at home and on the road lies with their quarterback.

It’s interesting, but I have to assume this is randomness. Obviously any stat-tracking in the NFL relies on smaller sample sizes than in baseball, but what would we say if a baseball player showed a marked home/road split after 37 games? I know what I’d say: This probably has more to do with chance and match-ups than it does any psychological trouble playing in the home stadium.

I mean, he looks pretty comfortable there:

His track and baseball seasons overlapped, occasionally causing scheduling conflicts. As a junior, after finishing second in the state triple jump competition in Austin, he joined his baseball teammates for a playoff game in Lorena, 90 miles north. The game ended with Kerley throwing out the tying run at home plate from right field.

“The things he’d do, it’s like he got dressed in a phone booth,” said Mike Mullins, who coached football against Kerley at Cameron Yoe High School. “You knew you’d better find a way to tackle him, or else you’d be hearing the Hutto fight song. And I heard a lot of the Hutto fight song.”

– Ben Shpigel, N.Y. Times.

Good feature from the Times on Jets rookie wideout Jeremy Kerley, who grew up in a tiny town outside of Austin, Texas.

I’m sure many — if not most — professional athletes have stories like this one somewhere in their past but I never get sick of hearing them. The best my town could boast was the legend of Mike Ryan and a couple of football stories which I shared here already. And none of those guys came all that close to playing in the NFL.

In my third game of varsity football sophomore year, I matched up against a senior nose tackle from Glen Cove named Ryan Fletcher. He had speed, strength, ability and about 100 pounds on me. He wound up scoring three touchdowns — from nose tackle — en route to what some immediately deemed the greatest individual defense effort in the history of Long Island football. He wound up at UConn and then on a couple of NFL taxi squads, but I don’t believe he ever played in an actual professional game.

That is to say I don’t envy any undersized sophomore centers who lined up across from Ndamukong Suh in his senior year of high school.