After Brett Favre’s handful of plays were complete against the Redskins last night, there were many eyes focused on the next two Jets quarterbacks, Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff.
Clemens, who only 10 days ago was competing for the starting job with Chad Pennington and now finds himself competing for the No. 2 job with Ratliff, had a rough night, completing only 5-of-12 for 63 yards.
On his first drive, early in the second quarter, Clemens had two key passes dropped on him when WR Jerricho Cotchery dropped his first pass and then TE Bubba Franks dropped a sure first-down pass on third down to kill the drive.
Clemens, too, stumbled out of the center-quarterback exchange a couple of times and had a third-down pass batted down.
Ratliff, who has had a strong camp and had a big game last week in Cleveland, where he threw two TD passes, has been pushing Clemens for the No. 2 job.
Ratliff, on his first play last night, completed a 22-yard pass to TE Dustin Keller.
Coach Eric Mangini, before last night’s game, said that Clemens was the No. 2 “for this game,” and added the caveat that he’ll “see how the rest of camp goes.”
Jets WR David Clowney, who caught TD passes of 71 and 70 yards last week, caught a 29-yard pass from Clemens in the second quarter. Clowney, however, appeared to hurt his right shoulder in the third quarter and didn’t return.
DE Shaun Ellis, who’s nursing a broken hand and hasn’t been practicing, missed his second consecutive preseason game as did WR Laveranues Coles, who has a leg injury and has been in and out of practice.
For those who miss Pennington, he went 5-for-6 (same as Favre last night for the Jets) for 55 yards (seven more yards than Favre) in his debut for the Dolphins, who played the Jaguars last night.