CORTLAND, N.Y. — Mark Sanchez was very pleased with his performance in the Jets’ intrasquad scrimmage Thursday night.

He had a right to be.
The rookie from Southern Cal looked very sharp in the 65-minute scrimmage, completing nine of 15 passes for 70 yards, according to statistics kept by the Jets. His numbers would’ve been even better if he hadn’t been victimized by four dropped passes by the receivers.
In contrast, fourth-year veteran Kellen Clemens was 5-for-7 for 26 yards, and had trouble moving the offense.
So on this night, it was advantage, Sanchez in the Jets’ quarterback duel, even if coach Rex Ryan wasn’t quite willing to go that far.
“I felt great about throwing the football,” said Sanchez, who later added, “I felt I was seeing things clearly and was in control.”
“I thought (Sanchez) did well,” said Ryan, who was quite upset about the drops, two of which were by rookie Britt Davis.
“We had three drops on third down,” the coach said. “Just catch the ball first and worry about running with it second. That’s junior-high stuff.”
Sanchez, on the other hand, looked quite professional, even though he didn’t get the offense into the end zone on any of his five series.
Clemens couldn’t get a touchdown, either, while playing four series.
His best chance came on his last drive. Completions to Dustin Keller and Chansi Stuckey, respectively, had netted first downs on the possession.
But a penalty and a “sack” by James Ihedigbo pushed the offense into a third-and-long situation. (Because there was no contact allowed on the quarterbacks, sacks were called at the discretion of the officials.)
Clemens avoided a rush and lofted a long pass toward Stuckey, who had a step on defender Drew Coleman. But the ball was slightly underthrown and Coleman was able to break it up, disappointing the overflow crowd of 6,100.
“I just threw it up there and was hoping Stuckey could go and get it,” Clemens said. “I wanted first and foremost to avoid the sack.”
As for the rest of his evening with the offense, Clemens said there were “some good things to build on a week into camp and definitely some things to improve upon before we get ready to strap it on” for the preseason opener against St. Louis on Aug. 14.
“I thought he did well,” Ryan said of Clemens, noting that the secondary covered very well.
Ryan said, “It never seemed like a lot of guys were open” while Clemens was on the field.
The Jets used a lot of no-huddle offense, although they sometimes used a lot of the play clock, by design.
“The most important thing is being loud and letting (the offense) know you’re in control,” Sanchez said.
“We had one penalty in that situation so that was great (but) we do want to eliminate that penalty. ... You can use the whole play clock. It’s like hurry up and relax. I thought I handled it very well.”
But when asked if he thought he made a statement with his play, Sanchez responded, “I don’t know. Obviously, it’s too early to tell. That’s up to coach Ryan to decide.”
Ryan noted that linebackers David Harris and Kenwin Cummings and cornerback Lito Sheppard were standouts on defense.
He also was impressed with the play of rookie running back Shonn Greene, who shook off the effects of a sprained ankle that had hampered him earlier this week and was effective as a runner and receiver.