Transcripts of news conferences and interviews in the Jets’ MetLife Stadium locker room following their 27-21 triumph over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday:
HEAD COACH REX RYAN
I want to tip my hat to our fans. I know we could barely communicate to each other, so obviously it had to be super hard for the Chargers to communicate. It was brutal. We were yelling and trying to get certain calls in, and it was rough. We talk about home field advantage, and that was probably the difference in the game. Those were two excellent teams going at it and we were able to find a way to get it done. The critical thing that we talked about was third down. San Diego came into the game with the No. 1 third-down offense in football, and they were going against the No. 1 third-down defense in football. Being able to win the third-down conversion battle was huge. Our offense was at 62 percent and they were at 50. We did much better on third downs in the second half. The way we were able to run the football…I think Shonn [Greene] went over 100 yards, I’m not sure.
The other thing I want to bring up is that the crowd was so into it and so loud that Brandon Moore
was the only one who knew it was fourth down. He’s running out there and I’m yelling, “There’s three seconds left!” I don’t know if everybody else knew it was fourth down, but it was so loud you could barely concentrate. Again, I want to say thank you to our fans.
On Jets WR Plaxico Burress…
He had three touchdowns? OK, not bad. I told the guys after the game that this is our bye week coming up, and that Plax and [Mark] Sanchez have to work on red zone efficiency. The rest of them can go. Nah, but it was great to see. The thing we talk about as a team is that sometimes you’re going to be featured more than other games. Obviously, he had the three red zone touchdowns. It’s unfortunate we had the holding call because Tone [Santonio Holmes] might have had the best touchdown catch I’ve ever seen, but it was called back. As every one of you said, this is an excellent opponent and an excellent team.
On Jets C Nick Mangold‘s three penalties…
Part of it is probably because that ankle is not 100 percent. I’ll take Nick Mangold any day of the week. We always put him on one guy. He’s the best center in football. If he had to foul, I’m sure it had to do with the fact that his ankle is still not healthy.
On the play of the Jets defense in the second half…
It was great. You have to give credit to the players. They did a great job executing our game plan. In the first half, we missed a couple of things. We kind of blew a coverage on the one third-down conversion they did have in the second half. I thought Mike Pettine and Sutt [Bob Sutton], DT [Dennis Thurman] and [Mark] Carrier — all of those guys did a great job. The rest of the staff did a great job.
On importance of entering bye week with a win…
We saw the team we envisioned at the start of the season. We were slow to get it going, but we saw it. We faced a good team today. Time of possession was huge. That team is the NFL leader in time of possession, and that’s something we talked about, third down and time of possession. We were able to win it, and that was the difference in the game.
On what he said to the team at halftime…
I told the defense we just need to calm down a little bit, do what we’re taught to do, and do your job. There was no panic. There was no chewing anybody out. If anything, we as coaches chewed each other out. We have to get things to where we eliminate mistakes. When we eliminate them ourselves, we’re pretty tough.
On his handshake with Chargers head coach Norv Turner after the game…
Before the game, I told him I thought I could get him inside. I was going to work the body. Obviously, my chin’s not great so I have to worry about that one punch of his [joking]. I have so much respect for Norv and I talked about the respect I have for that organization. That’s never changed. It was something that was unintentional and unfortunate, but like I said, we’ll probably see them again.
On Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson leaving the game…
LT had an illness that started before the game. It looked like a car coming in, NASCAR coming in. He was getting four tires and gas and everything else. You had everybody in the world working on him. It got him through most of the game but he couldn’t finish it. It was just an illness thing.
On other Jets injuries…
The big guy came out in the first series, big Kenrick Ellis, with an ankle. [LB David] Harris had an ankle. That was something I was really proud of our defense. We had a couple of defensive linemen out, with [DE Mike] DeVito and Kenrick and our guys stepped up. When David went down it seemed like our headset was down for a little bit too. We were having a tough time communicating. But at the end of the day, we showed the heart we knew we had and we were able to find a win.
On Burress needing this game…
He’s been doing it the whole time. Obviously he wants to catch passes and everything else. But last week he complained when he caught the one ball, “With that coverage maybe we should have thrown it to somebody else.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard that. He’s a good teammate. He knew his time would come. It’s not his first rodeo.
On if he thought it wouldn’t be the Jets day when Chargers TE Randy McMichael had a big third down catch in the fourth quarter…
No chance, no chance. I never felt like that at all. I felt like we needed to fix that coverage.
On the defensive play call on Darrelle Revis’ interception…
We showed man, they ran run-and-tell motions. This will be for the advanced class. They were running motions over to see if it was man. We showed them a man look, then ran loaded zones. It was a great call. Sure enough, they threw into it. Cro [CB Antonio Cromartie] had great coverage. He got a tip on the ball and Revis was off to the races.
On the timing of the bye week…
I think the bye always comes at a good time. We just feel like we’re hitting out stride now. This is the football team we think we have. We had more than hiccups along the way. Here we are. We know what’s up next. We’ve got two of our divisional teams. As everybody says, they’re ahead of us. No question. Well, we’ll see what happens. We’ll play at Buffalo, tough road trip. We’re at Buffalo, then we play that other team.
On why Burress wasn’t in the game on the last red zone offensive play…
There’s a bonus in his contract. If he got four [touchdowns] then there’s no chance. We can’t afford that so I took him out [laughs]. Really, we’re just selling the run so much in there that we wanted them to think we’re running and see if we can pop one open to Tone. The great thing about that is we told Sanchez, “Take a sack. If its not there, just take a sack.” That’s why you saw him fall down without anybody there.
On if Burress was confused by the play call because he wasn’t in on that play…
No. We’re trying like crazy to sell that run-action. That play’s looked good in practice. We were hoping they’d sell the farm and we’d have a chance. I felt confident that Sanchez would take that sack. He pulled the old Brett Favre there [joking]. It was a smart move. Then Nick [K Nick Folk] came in. That was a great kick by Nick. Huge kick by Nick Folk.
QB MARK SANCHEZ
On the difference between winning two in a row prior to the bye week as opposed to losing two in a row…
I don’t know. I didn’t think we were going to lose at all. I’m just confident we’re going to win. I don’t know what it would’ve been like if we lost. I just don’t really think like that. I’m just proud of the way our guys played. We put our defense in a hole early I felt like, almost spotted them 14 points, and then came back and won. That was a great effort by [Darrelle] Revis, by the D-line applying pressure, and Kyle Wilson, and then Plax [Plaxico Burress] has an awesome day.
On if the offense felt right…
It was great. It was great to see Shonn Greene and LT [LaDainian Tomlinson] early, he wasn’t feeling very good but Shonn Greene came in and picked up the slack and did an awesome job, getting tough yards, rushing hard, and guys were finishing their blocks down field, Brandon Moore. You see the lineman the way we played last year and really toughens our running game. They would finish blocks down field and we’d have to chase the play. That’s when you’re running the ball well. So that was fun to see.
On why he was able to connect so well with Burress today…
We still missed a couple things. I missed him on the interception, I missed him on a back shoulder earlier in the game, but we just kind of hung with it. It took a great effort from him to get open. I think he gave [Antoine] Cason a good run today and Cason’s a great cornerback — I played against him in college.
But Plax just had his day. We were waiting for kind of a breakout game like this and it all kind of clicked, but that doesn’t happen without Dustin [Keller] occupying defenders, without Dustin making big catches, without JK [Jeremy Kerley] converting on third down, giving us more chances to make plays, and then Santonio [Holmes], not his biggest day numbers-wise but an awesome job of converting on a couple of things. I wish he wouldn’t have gotten the pass interference, I wish he would’ve been able to catch the ball there late against [Quentin] Jammer, but he did a great job, too, occupying defenders and giving Plaxico the chance.
On getting a win before the bye week…
It’s important for the momentum of your football team, for the way our season’s gone, to get a win here and just build on this. It didn’t start great, and it hasn’t really been our thing to start fast, but we came out with a big win. I’m just really happy for these guys, to get home, see their families, especially an early game like this. Get in, get your workout tomorrow, get your film and get out of here, go home, reset your mind, reset your focus, see your families, go back to your hometown and come back ready to go and finish this season out.
On what it says about the Jets to come back and win…
This team doesn’t have any quit. We rely on each other to come back and make plays, offense, defense and special teams. I didn’t like the way we had too many penalties this week, but that’s something we have to compete against and battle with the next two weeks. I’m sure happy the way we persevered through a slow start.
On whether there will be any more questions about the chemistry between him and Burress…
No, I’m not worried about it. He’s a great player. We just have to get him the ball when we can. He had his day today. Next time it’ll be Tone [Holmes] or Dustin or JK, but they’re all ready to play and they’re all going to have a day like this at some point.
On why he played so well all week in practice leading up to the game…
It’s been the same week of practice every week. I’ve been working hard to make things click, to show my energy, but I think this week we put a real emphasis on getting excited early in practice. We had the Monday night, and as soon as that game ended, we just needed that win. I knew it was going to be a short week. I knew I’d have to bring my energy and focus and show these guys that we’re going to be on the field Sunday before you know it, so we’ve got to get this work in. I just demand it from them as much as I could, and tried to pull their best out of them at practice.
I haven’t seen the receivers run like that in practice in a while. Those guys were flying around the field. That red zone deal was perfect, and it really showed out here. We got the same completions in practice that we got out here in the game, and it really showed, so I’m proud of those guys and they kept me going all week.
On beating one of the better teams in the league…
Absolutely, and they have a lot of firepower. Our defense had a big task on their hands and we didn’t help them early. We gave them a couple, they drove down and got a touchdown off the interception and then the first pass of the game, they pick it off or whatever they called it, a fumble, an interception, I don’t know, but they got seven points. So we put our defense in a hole, but they battled back and played really well.
On if it is a good feeling to head into the bye week with two straight wins…
It’s a great feeling just to get back on the winning track and play them the way we know how to play. It wasn’t perfect, but that’s fine. We have something to build on and something to celebrate during this bye week.
On USC beating Notre Dame…
I heard the Trojans won big last night, so that was great. I know they’ve got a big one against Stanford, right? I think. So I’ll be able to watch that one and relax, but I’m proud of these guys in this locker room. We did a heck of a job, and the coach prepared us really well.
On the running game…
It was tough. They were hard-fought yards. Shonn [Greene] was punishing the second-level defenders. You can tell when our running game’s really rolling when I’ve got to run after and chase Shonn down after plays. That’s a good thing when I’m running after the lineman, finishing down field, finishing their blocks, Brandon Moore, Wayne Hunter. Wayne did an awesome job on their pass rushers, as well. It was a great team effort and the guys who come in and fill in at the offensive line spots in our heavier packages, like Vlad [Ducasse], with [Matthew] Mulligan, awesome job by those guys, so I’m really proud of them.
On the defense getting interceptions…
For Kyle, that’s huge. He was so excited, he jumped the heck out of that route and made a pretty good little return, too. So we’re happy for him. He’s been working hard. He’s in there all night and day in the facility getting extra work, sitting with the coaches, watching extra film, so he deserves it, and it finally showed, so that was big. And Revis, he’s just being Revis, just taking the ball away and setting us up nicely in the red zone there for the offense, so that’s huge.
On getting Burress on track…
That wasn’t our goal at all. We didn’t plan it that way, you never plan a gameplan around just one guy. We want to get the ball to all our playmakers and I think we did. It just happened to be in the red zone when he was matched one on one, we gave him his chances and he ran some great routes. He got off some tough press coverage and he finished plays. He really did. He finished plays. So that was very good, to get him rolling.
On the team’s fourth-quarter comeback…
What’s crazy is [Mark] Brunell mentioned that right after, he said, “Just another fourth-quarter comeback.” I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t even think about being down in the fourth quarter. We have such a winning attitude and a winning mentality here, that it really didn’t faze this team, it didn’t slow us down. We ran the ball well and we came back in the fourth quarter to win it. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We win around here, so when we went through those three losses, all we wanted to do was get back on the winning track and here we are.
On if he sent Joe McKnight out wide on Burress’ third touchdown reception because of a matchup…
No, that’s part of the play.
On getting Burress so involved…
Well, he wants to contribute and this isn’t the end for him. It can still get better for both of us. There are some throws that I missed to him and that stuff we’ll rep out in practice. It showed from Friday’s practice. We had a great day on Friday. It was almost perfect. The ball, I think, hit the ground one time. The receivers knew their routes, they ran them to perfection, they were running hard and it showed in the red zone. He’s not even my first progression on some of those red zone throws, so the offensive line did a great job of holding up against their pass rush.
On if teams will watch the tape and play Burress differently…
That could happen, and we have to react to that. But if Plaxico demands a double team, then we have to be smart. And he’s one of those guys who, even if he’s doubled, sometimes is open.
On being two weeks removed from the losing streak and if it feels like a new season…
I don’t know about that, I think we just didn’t play our best. Not having Nick [Mangold] for a couple games didn’t help, but we had some guys fill in and play real hard and try their best and we just couldn’t get it right. We’re back on track I think. I think the running game is doing a great job, it takes a lot of pressure off Schotty [OC Brian Schottenheimer], it takes a lot of pressure off the wide outs and the pass protection. I thought we had a pretty good game minus the interception and a couple throws here or there. It was a solid effort and a good way to go into the bye week.
On how satisfying it is to win over a 4-1 team…
It was good because that’s a great opponent. They came in with a real good offense, and I said this already, but we didn’t help our defense early. We gave them seven points there and then I throw an interception right near the red zone fringe area and they go down and score. So that’s 14 points against a really good offense and our defense just buckled down, took two from them with two interceptions, one by Revis and one by Kyle. So I’m just proud of the way our guys played.
On how important the win was before the bye week…
Absolutely, it just gives you a little momentum going into the bye week and we’ll just keep rolling.
On if he hurt his shoulder…
No, I ice every game, every practice.
On if the doctors looked at him…
They wanted to talk about it.
On if he had a favorite play with Burress today…
I don’t know, he looked good on a lot of stuff. You know what I was real happy about was the way JK played. Kerley did a great job of keeping two drives alive on third down. And then Santonio, I mean, him and Dustin, they have to demand double teams, they demand coverage. And that’s why Plaxico got open there and he’s such a big body you just have to give him a chance. But even after we missed a couple of fades early, he hung with it. Plaxico hung in there, he stayed positive, Santonio stayed positive and it was the whole receiving corps. They did a great job today.
On if they liked the matchup against Antoine Cason…
I think Plaxico just got hot. I don’t think it mattered who covered him today, he was rolling. You have to feed your studs when they’re on fire and that’s what we did.
On if there was a different mindset on third downs today…
I think we were much better on first and second down. When we weren’t, we ended up in third and long. There were a couple third and half-a-miles. They’re almost give-up downs. You just have to try to get some field position back, but when we were in there in third-and-manageable, we had the ability to run it, had the ability to throw it and it just keeps the defense off balance. We were so much better on third down and much more efficient. We gave away a couple at the end, just trying to run the clock out.
On if being successful on third down is more about what happens on first and second down…
Absolutely. You want to be good on third down. We have to be efficient on first and second down and put us in third-and-manageable.
On Burress as a new teammate coming in and learning the system…
He just wants to talk about a lot of stuff. He wants to ask the questions, “What are you thinking on this?” He highlights all of his routes in the book. And sometimes he’ll ask, “What about this on a back side of a route? What about this in a combination?” So he thinks the game all the time, which is good. Him and Santonio together, you have two receivers like that, a good slot player in JK and a good tight end, they take all the pressure off each other and when everybody is playing well, somebody is going to have a great game. Today happened to be Plaxico’s day.
On his thoughts after he threw an interception…
That’s kind of the way the ball bounces sometimes. I’m trying to get rid of the ball and didn’t put it on Dustin like I wanted to. So it’s an interception, so what. It’s 30 seconds into the game, or whatever it was. You have to go, you have to play. It’s a long game, we’ll come back and win and that’s what we did.
On if he knows how important this game is for Burress…
I think a lot of people are putting the pressure on him. Not in our building. Somebody is going to have a big game in the receiving corps if I’m playing well. If not, the ball gets spread around just fine, so we’re not putting that pressure on him. He has the ability to still do this and be a big target in the red zone, but he’s done fine. It’s a work in progress. This thing, I don’t know how many practices we’ve had.
On if he and Burress have said that it is a work in progress…
No, that’s just the way it is. People expect results right away. You can’t just plug in someone after throwing to Braylon [Edwards] for two years and it’s all better, everything’s fine now. They’re different players and so it’s a learning process. We’re going through it and today happened to be a good day, and we have to keep building on it.
On if he felt like today was the day Shonn Greene might break out…
He was close and the offensive line did a great job of really defining their blocks and giving Shonn easy lanes. Brandon Moore and Matt Slauson, those guys really torque the defender and give Shonn a clear lane, so he knew where to cut. Once he gets into that second level, he’s a bruiser. Nobody wants to tackle him and he put a couple of their safeties out for a couple plays. They ended up coming back in the game, but he’s not easy to tackle. That’s a big guy and he’s rolling pretty fast.
On using the three wide receivers and playing to their strengths…
We try to, and it happened to be Plaxico in the red zone. The way they were playing their coverage, we got a matchup the way we wanted to and kept going to him. But I’m just glad, I was really pleased with how positive he stayed after I missed the early fade route to him. He stayed into it and was just excited and when we got him the ball, we got him a touchdown. Santonio, JK, Dustin got us down the field. [LaDainian Tomlinson] got us down the field. Shonn Greene and the running game got us down the field, and Plaxico finished the drive, so that was huge.
CB DARRELLE REVIS
On what the win does for this team…
It’s real big for us. It gives us more confidence. This was a must-win for us. We needed this going into the bye. To get two wins under our belts in two games is great. The offense played great. Special teams played great. Going into halftime, we made some adjustments on defense to try to get off on third down.
On if he thought he was going to return his interception for a touchdown…
What I should’ve done is I should have cut back like I did last week. I had some blockers behind me. I felt their presence. Philip [Rivers] had a great angle on me and [Randy] McMichael, as well, and they knocked me out of bounds.
On how critical his interception was…
It was a big play, but I was [only] a part of the play. [Antonio] Cromartie made a good play deflecting the ball. The ball popped up and I happened to just be able to get my hands up under it. Even before that, it was a key play because they were pushing. They were in the high red zone and they were going in to score. It’s good for our defense to make a play and turn the ball over.
WR PLAXICO BURRESS
On scoring three touchdowns and winning the game…
It just felt good. I feel we got off to a good start, offensively. We came in with a great plan [and] we were just trying to execute it. Mark [Sanchez] and myself, we did a good job of trying to get a little groove going. We’ve been working hard at it, day in and day out, and it showed. It was a good football team we played and it was a good win for us.
On his show of emotion after his touchdowns…
We’ve just been working so hard at it in practice. [I was] just being patient. Santonio [Holmes] kept telling me, “Just be patient.” Schotty [Brian Schottenheimer] stuck with me and was still calling the plays. Just working hard in practice and seeing the results in practice, I said, “Hey, there is going to come a time in the game where these things are going to click,” and today we just had a great day. We got the same exact coverage we were seeing on film and Mark just trusted me that I was going to go out and make the plays. It was a good day.
On if he ever worried about never having a day like this again…
Every morning that you wake up on Sunday, you want to be great. Some of the situations that were happening, I would just say to myself, “Just let the game come to me,” I just tried to be patient. I was forcing it a little bit. The coaches have been calling the plays and I hadn’t been getting the results for them. It’s a tribute to them saying, “You know what, we’re going to stick with him. He’s been working hard.” It showed today, and hopefully, we can build off of this. If I can just go out and just have a little impact on this offense, Tone can catch a [bunch] and Dustin can keep on his way to the Pro Bowl and all those kinds of things. There is still a lot of work ahead for us. It’s a start. It’s a stepping stone that we can build on.
WR SANTONIO HOLMES
On how the team performed overall…
It was a great win. The team played together, defense came out and played pretty physical, offense put together some great drives. We had to start with a few penalties on the first couple of plays, but we still managed to get the ball down the field. The guys up front did a pretty good job as well.
On his feelings about how the offense performed on third down situations…
That was one of the big focuses we had throughout the week, doing a better job on third down. That has been our main focus all season to be in the top five in the NFL on third down conversions. We did a pretty good job today. Mark [Sanchez] got the ball out of his hands; the offensive line gave him enough time. The running backs converted on third and short a few times. We did what we had to do to keep our drives alive.
On Mark Sanchez’s performance…
He played pretty well. He was excited throughout the whole day and it started in practice. He had a chip on his shoulder and he wanted to have some fun today.
LB AARON MAYBIN
On how the defense performed…
We had played good in spurts in the first half as a defense, but in the second half we started off the tempo right. We were able to establish our swagger a little bit.
On how the defense needs to keep playing well in key situations…
If we are going to be a successful team, we can’t break down. They [San Diego] were able to drive the ball down the field and we made some mistakes. When it came down to the game on the line, we needed to make a big play. We did that twice.
On how the offense performed…
Our offense was going out there and fighting for us. They were moving the ball and it was time for us [defense] to have the offense’s back like they had ours.
RB LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON
On his illness during the game…
I woke up this morning and felt pretty bad. I tried to push through as long as I could until I didn’t have energy.
On his emotions about playing his former team…
As I said during the week, I wanted to treat it like a playoff game. I’d be lying if I said if this didn’t add some satisfaction. You never really get to close that chapter until you face them. The win makes it better.
On the importance of getting a win before the bye week…
It’s very important. We had talked about it all week long going into the bye week with a win. We wanted to be 4-3 going into the bye. We had a great focus this week. Everyone was really into it. The guys understood the magnitude of going into a bye week with a win.
CB KYLE WILSON
On the play he made to intercept a pass late in the game…
It just came [because] I was doing my job. I was supposed to be under the receiver. It was a motion and we communicated the coverage. We did everything we were supposed to do and I give that to Coach [Mike] Pettine. I was just doing my job out there.
On what was going through his head on that play…
First off, catch the ball. Second, get loose and get to the end zone. I was hoping to get to the end zone, trying to be like Rev [Darrelle Revis] over here [laughing]. I think it was big, obviously, to hold on to the ball and get as many yards as I [could].
On what his first interception feels like…
It was special. I’m not going to say it wasn’t. I wasn’t holding my breath for it. I knew it would come sooner or later. I can’t go outlaw out there. I just have to continue to play the defense [and] continue to do the things they are asking me to do to the best of my ability.
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New York Jets : News
