Rex Ryan Jets Press Conference Transcript 9/12/11

Here is the Rex Ryan press conference transcript from today, courtesy of the team

Opening statement…

After  watching the film again, we still won, so I think that’s the main  thing.  It was really what we thought it was.  We had some good moments  and then there were some where it’s like, ‘Whew.’  Our correction period  went a little longer than what we normally do.  Clearly, with our  scheme, our communication or whatever the case may be, we have to do a  much better job.  You have to give Dallas credit.  They gave us some  problems, both schematically and with their personnel.  Anytime you can  make those corrections and find a way to win is a good thing because all  the focus is on you and how we’re going to fix it.  ‘If we did what we  were supposed to do on this call, this is how things would’ve looked’,  so that’s always a positive thing.

As  far as injuries looked, (there is) nothing huge.  I expect everybody to  practice.  Now, I want to show you guys, this is a typical list of  after a game (holds up sheets of paper).  When you play a physical  football game, this is what your treatment list looks like.  That’s over  two pages of treatments.  Now, that’s not the injury list, but that’s  what happens in a typical game and that’s only the first game of the  year.  It shows it was obviously a physical game, a lot of bumps and  bruises and guys getting tired and things.  We had a celebration Monday  today, which means we show the tape, we get our corrections done, we  have recovery lifts, as we call it, then we go out and we have  corrections.  Obviously, they have Tuesday off, but we like to get them  in here and move them around a little bit, get some of that general  soreness out, get some of that treatment out, get the recovery lift and  also watch the tape, get the game behind us and get the corrections in.   Then, when you move on to Wednesday, then it’s full speed ahead on (the  players).  I know teams do things differently, but that’s why we call  it a celebration Monday.  With that, I’ll open it up.

On not committing any penalties in last night’s game…

That  was a huge thing for us.  We’re trying to be (better).  Every team, I’m  sure, has that goal (of) let’s be the least-penalized team in the  league.  Now, last year especially, we ranked up there and that was when  everyone in the organization started doing pushups and all that kind of  stuff to get better.  It’s a focus thing.  We feel we can control  that.  That’s a point of emphasis this year, trying to knock those  penalties way down.  If you have to beat us physically, I think you’ll  have a tough time.  I think we have an excellent football team.  I think  we are a talented team and if we can eliminate those mental (mistakes),  eliminate the penalties, eliminate the self-inflicted wounds if you  will, then we’re going to be tough to beat.

On Mark Sanchez’s health…

I  was with him for four hours today.  He went to this event with Mike  Tannenbaum and myself in the city.  It was for charity.  He seemed fine  to me.  We all saw the game.  I’m sure he was sore.  I’m sure he was  beat up.  He’s not on the treatment list.

On possibly using the no-huddle offense earlier in the game to get Sanchez into a rhythm…

We  definitely went to it.  We thought that helped us in this game.  You  could be right.  I think we want to get out.  Sometimes, it’s a feeling  out process.  You go into a game, obviously we thought we were going to  run the ball more than we did last night, but that never happened.  You  have to give credit to my brother (Rob Ryan) and to Dallas.  They kind  of took that run away from us, so we kind of had to make adjustments.   We did a few different things with our three tight end sets and all that  kind of jazz and, at the end of the day, we thought it was best to work  on some no-huddle.  As far as starting out in it, we think we’re an  excellent running football game.  I think if you get into that  no-huddle, I think you’re more of a passing attack than we probably want  to be.  Certainly, I don’t disagree with you.  I think Mark has done a  great job in those no-huddle attacks.

On whether the emphasis on the pass last night was a result of the Dallas defense or a shift in the offense’s philosophy…

I  definitely don’t want to be that (a passing team).  I don’t want those  numbers to ever be like that, but games are different.  I’ll give you a  perfect example.  Last year, I was upset.  I never thought we were  running the ball enough.  We go play Detroit and I’m like, ‘We are going  to run the thing 35 times.’  Right before the game, I said, ‘Tomorrow,  we are going to run the ball 35 times.’  Schotty (Brian Schotteheimer)  is beating his head into this front and they’re pounding it in there.   The week before they had given up like 180 yards rushing and here we  are.  We can get two yards a carry.  They are just bringing them all in  there and we kept running it and kept running it.  You might recall that  game, we had about 30 rushing attempts.  When I tell our guys  something, I believe it to be true.  Schotty is great because he knows  he’s covering my back.  We’re going to have 35 rushing attempts.  I  remember going to those guys and I’m counting them myself.  That’s only  30 or 29.  I go over to our guys late in that game.  I said, ‘Well,  guys, I told you we were going to have 35 rushing attempts, and we’re  going to.  But, if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon win this  game.’  They’re looking at me like I’m crazy.  They’re like, “No, Rex,  we don’t care about the 35 rushing attempts.”  I wanted to make sure, if  I told them we were going to have 35 rushing attempts, then we were.   That day, I learned, as a head coach, that you have to be careful with  statements like that because that wasn’t in the best interests of the  New York Jets.  We needed to adjust what we did.  We had been beating  our head for three quarters and all we had been doing is running and  punting, so I learned right then, that I don’t need to put that on us.   Yes, I would like to run the ball better.

On when he knew he would use the no-huddle offense…

Right  before half was a great example. When we went to that no-huddle, we  kind of got them on their heels a little bit, and I thought we gained  some momentum. That was when I mentioned in to Schotty (offensive  coordinator Brian Schottenheimer) and Schotty agreed with me, that we  were going to go do that. We open up the half and try to go (with) those  three tight ends and all that. Then we knew we were going to have this  in our pocket. That’s what happened. We didn’t think our defense was  going to let them go down the field and score another touchdown the  first drive. Usually, we’re good on those first drives. We gave up a  touchdown with the opening drive of the game and the opening drive of  the second half, something we’re not accustomed to doing, but then we  went into that no-huddle attack.

On whether there was a point during the game that he thought it would have been good to have Nnamdi Asomugha…

I  don’t know if Nnamdi was going to cover that tight end or not. Maybe we  could have used him and tried him there. We tried everybody else there.  That kid (Jason Witten) is a good player. He’s a great player. The  other thing is, they had him targeted in that red zone. Our guys did a  tremendous job. We had two guys smashing him, doing a great job on him  in there. That was going to be Romo’s target. It just seemed like he was  open the whole night.

On today’s corrections after giving up 390 yards on defense…

That’s  painful. There was a few that were really disappointing to us, and  those are the ones where you make the mental mistakes. Clearly, there  was a few of those. Last year, I’ll be honest, we had, maybe as few of  mental mistakes as any defense I’ve ever been around, and that’s a  credit to Mike Pettine, Bob Sutton and DT (Dennis Thurman), and all  those guys. They do a great job. It was uncharacteristic. We made a few  mental mistakes that really cost us. Quite Honestly, Romo made a couple  of throws on us—the perfectly thrown ball is almost impossible to  defend, and he made a couple of those throws last night.

On whether he learned anything about the team after its first game…

I  knew that we had a lot of character and that we had guts. For three  years now, one thing you can say about this team, it doesn’t lack fight.  We might not win every game, and we might not play great every game,  but this team is going to give you what we have. We don’t lack courage,  fight, that temperament, and the belief that momentum’s coming our way.  That’s who we are. If we didn’t have that last night, there were several  opportunities to just let that game go, but we refused to let go of  that rope.

On if defenses are going to focus on the Jets’ pass attack after Sunday night’s game…

Yes,  I mean I think so. I think when you look at it, the best would be, some  weeks are going to be different. If you’re going to give seven-man  spacing, you’re going to get the ball run at you more than you are if  you have eight or nine guys down there. It just goes without saying. So I  could see that happening, absolutely it can.

On if Antonio Cromartie is the primary option at kick returner…

Well  I think (Mike Westhoff will) rotate him and Joe (McKnight), right now  (that’s) our plan, to have both of them. Both of them are speed guys,  but (Cromartie) could be exceptional back there.

On special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff telling Cromartie not to return kickoffs from nine yards deep in the endzone…

Well,  I don’t know if he’s trying to break that record. I think he owns that  record, right? The longest one, on that field goal or something. But  ideally, we don’t need to return anything past six yards (deep in the  end zone).

On how he balances a starter like Cromartie having such a big role on special teams…

Well  that’s true and that’s a fine line there. I mean, it really is. We had  Jim Leonhard return punts for us. An ideal situation would be that you  feel great about maybe a backup player doing those things, where you  have (Jeremy) Kerley doing the punt return. Other than the one he had  bounce off of him, I thought he did a pretty good job this first game.  But I think Joe (McKnight) can do a good job as a kickoff returner as  well.

On only averaging 2.8 yards per rush attempt against Dallas…

First  off, you have to give the opponent credit. I think Dallas did a good  job of mixing things up. They brought a lot of pressure in the running  game, blitzing linebackers from about a yard depth, jamming it up in  there. It was tough, there’s no doubt. It kind of leaves you vulnerable a  little on the outside, and we did make them pay a little bit later in  the game with the pass.

On using swing passess and screens as a substitute for the run game…

Right,  exactly, the same thing they were trying to do to us. They were fairly  effective with the screen game and I thought we were as well.

On the decision to let McKnight return kickoffs instead of Cromartie…

Well,  we had we had worked all week on mixing it. So it was just an easy  switch. But you kind of feel it out, you let the guys try it and  eventually we’ll do what we think is in our best interest.

On his message to the team today…

Just  that, we celebrate the victories, because they are hard to come by and  you have to earn every one of them. But it was good news, bad news. We  have some corrections to make, clearly. We have to get better and you  give Dallas a lot of credit, because they made a lot of plays both  offensively and defensively. But we made enough plays at the end, when  it counted. Our defense was at its best at the end of the game, in the  fourth quarter. So that’s a good thing, but we made some mistakes. That  isn’t who we are. And I share with you guys almost exactly what I share  with them. I don’t try to hide anything, so you can ask them. What I’ve  already covered is generally what I tell the team.

On LaDainian Tomlinson getting a lot of playing time…

He  is a great route runner and he can still run the football, and he’s  great in protection. But in that case where we’re doing a lot of our  three-wide stuff, no-huddle stuff, (Tomlinson) is really the primary  back in that and Shonn is more of a reserve in that role. That’s why he  was in there, and he did a great job. He made a couple huge plays for  us. The screen, the one on the first down where he made the run after  the catch. He did a tremendous job. The catch getting out of bounds. In  fact, he’ll get a game ball and things like that for his efforts. Nick  Folk, I guess we’ll give him one, right? The game balls will be Folk,  it’ll be (Tomlinson), it’ll be (Isaiah) Trufant, and the best play  wasn’t the touchdown Trufant that had, it was on a kick where he was the  first guy down the field. Here’s a guy that is small for Summit (High  School) standards, and he ran down there, hits the wedge, there’s three  blockers on him, and then he goes and makes the tackle. He’s an amazing  little guy and the more he plays, he just looks short to me, he doesn’t  look small anymore. But he did a great job. Obviously, Joe McKnight with  the huge punt block. We’re not giving a game ball to any defensive  players, even though Bart Scott played tremendous. But when your defense  is not consistent and we don’t play to our standards, no game balls.

On if McKnight will get a game ball…

Yes. So you have three special teams game balls and then on offense Plaxico (Burress) will get one, and (Tomlinson).

On when he knew Trufant was getting elevated to the active roster…

Well,  I check with (Westhoff) a bunch and we’ll go over the things on what we  need. We’ll check with all three coordinators and really what is in our  best interests for the last spot, two spots maybe. And, we generally  will always will go to the guy who has the biggest impact on (special)  teams. That’s generally what happens. And I think with that, we wanted  his speed. We thought about playing the young man from Dallas, Andrew  (Sendejo). There’s not chance I’ll even try the last name (joking). We  were going to put him up, because I kind of liked that. Let a guy play  against his former team and all that. But at the end of the day, we went  with the speed, and it was the right move obviously.

On if he remembers another time that he did not give a game ball to the defense after a win…

Not  too often. It is rare. But it’s good, that group well, “get all mad at  me and everybody else, Pettine and you guys”. That’s good.

On if it was from the Miami game from a couple years ago…

Remember we lost that game?