McKnight: Fans' boos helped push Ryan to bench Sanchez

New York Jets running back Joe McKnight said he believes the lack of fan support for Mark Sanchez could have possibly played a big role in the decision by Rex Ryan to bench his starting quarterback.

And not in the way you would think.  McKnight thinks his teammate got rattled by the din of boos in the stadium and it affected his play on the field.

"I think it did," McKnight said Wednesday. "Any time you're the starting quarterback and you're on the football field and you're trying to call plays and you got the people that are supposed to be rooting for you screaming for the other quarterback, that's kind of frustrating.  That kind of takes you out of the game.  And I think that's kind of made it tough for the coaches to make their decision."

While the chants of "Te-bow, Te-bow" might have hindered Sanchez's performance on the field, it did nothing to bolster Tim Tebow's reputation with the head coach.  On Tuesday, Ryan chose third-string QB Greg McElroy over the choice of the people to start Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers.

McKnight might have more of a special kinship with Sanchez than the rest of the team.  They played together at USC and McKnight has always had his buddy's back.