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The Jets turned back to Geno Smith at quarterback against the Dolphins on Monday night, a decision that seems to have been based on their feeling that Smith was better at handing the ball off than Michael Vick.

Smith was called on to throw just 13 passes in the game, five of which came after the Dolphins took a 16-13 lead late in the fourth quarter and the Jets were forced to pass if they wanted to tie or win the game. Until that point, though, the Jets were 49-8 in favor of running the ball even though the Dolphins were playing the inexperienced R.J. Stanford at corner and flooding the box with players to stop the run.

For much of the game, it was successful enough that you wondered where this game plan was when Tim Tebow was on the team. The Jets ran for 210 yards in the first half and led most of the way, but the inability and unwillingness to throw the ball caught up with them as the game wore on and the Dolphins defense adjusted. When it was over, Jets coach Rex Ryan said the plan wasn’t about Smith.

“It had zero to do with us not having faith in our quarterback. It had everything to do with us trying to win the game,” Ryan said, via the New York Times.

When you decide that not letting your quarterback throw gives you the best chance to win, it’s pretty hard to argue that you have much faith in him or his ability but it probably won’t be Ryan’s job to make statements about Jets quarterbacks that strain credulity too much longer.