Shonn Greene said it was miscommunication with quarterback Mark Sanchez that caused his costly fourth-quarter fumble Sunday. The second-year running back said he did not hear Sanchez changing the play from a toss to a handoff on second-and-5 from the Texans' 41-yard line.
"I didn't get the call so, it was kind of an off play. I am running something different. Mark is running something kind of different, so when I went to get the ball, it wasn't a clean ball exchange," Greene said. "By that time guys had got into the backfield and got to me and I was trying to break a tackle and I should've went down and it came out."
On the next play, Houston quarterback Matt Schaub hit Joel Dreessen on a 43-yard touchdown to cut the Jets' 13-point lead to 23-17.
Greene did not get in the game again.
He was also benched in the season opener after he fumbled twice. Greene had three fumbles, all lost, as a rookie last season.
This comes at a terrible for time for Greene owners and the Jets. The team wanted to take the work load off aging back LaDainian Tomlinson by giving Greene more carries. But if Greene keeps losing the ball, he's not going to see the field. We'll see how this affects the work load going forward, but the Jets don't seem to have much of a choice if they want to ease up on LT's carries. Greene had to work his way up to splitting carries because of fumbles in the preseason and in the Jets first game.
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