2008 Green and White Practice Photos
Transcript of Jets head coach Eric Mangini's news conference after Saturday's Green & White Practice:
The reason we had this setup was for the experience. It's to get everybody into the mode that we're going to be moving into very quickly, going into the pregame mechanics, going through the pregame locker room routine and how that works, going through the sideline routines, substitutions, the box communications to the sideline, all the things that you can't get at practice.
There's a lot of new guys, there's a lot of young guys, and to have them experience that prior to us playing another opponent is incredibly valuable. It's a fun way to practice and get a lot of work done, and have a change-up for the guys. I think we're all excited about today. I know I was. I'm just really, really happy with the way things went.
On the amount of penalties in the game…
I'm never happy with penalties. We talk about it with the players, we track it, we track penalties in practice, we'll obviously track the penalties here. They kill drives or they extend drives. They're completely in our control. A lot of them are snap counts, a lot of them are based on poor technique, a lot of them are decisions. Those things are all under our control. They just affect the game so dramatically.
On the quarterbacks…
It's interesting when you look at it. We weren't very successful on third down or fourth down offensively — we might have pitched a shutout there. That's a real plus for the defense, I was happy about that. But then you flip it around; you get a couple of big plays and how quickly that can change the whole complexion of the game, and defensively you obviously have to play good third- and fourth-down defense, but that can all be negated by a deep ball.
Kellen [Clemens] had one, Chad [Pennington] had one, and we've really got to look at it in the context of the plays that were called, the decisions that were made and get a better feel for that when watching tape. The coordinators had a lot of flexibility. They called what they wanted to change the game plan, to add some gadgets, so there were a few calls that I wasn't as familiar with.
On how much today's practice is weighed against a regular practice in terms of the QB competition…
It's very, very different. Looking at it as another type of practice, I haven't really added a weight or scale to it, but it gives you a lot closer look at what it's going to be like in a game situation. Guys coming in and out of the sideline, the clock running down, different blitz looks. This is as close as we could get in a practice to what we'll face.
On his assessment of Clemens' drives at the end of the game…
The one thing that happened on both of the drives, it looked like there were a couple of dropped balls on deep balls, so we don't know how the drive would have gone there. I know that White towards the end was working out of only one personnel group. We were limited in terms of depth on each team. So that changed and they had to adjust their personnel group.
I thought he made some nice throws and we couldn't complete them, we couldn't catch them. It's hard to say where the drive would have gone had we made those catches.
On his assessment of Pennington and Clemens…
It's tough to give any real assessment. As I'm watching this game, part of it is watching those guys but part of it is watching all the other new guys, part of it is trying to look at the scheme and how those guys are executing the scheme. There's a lot of new faces to look at. That's really going to come more from the tape than this first look.
On what the Green team will get for the victory…
There was a little controversy postgame on that because usually the team that wins has curfew off tonight, and then there's some things that we have scheduled for tomorrow — a little extra workout that we had scheduled, some other mandatory things that were scheduled. Green will have all those off up until the squad meeting that we have.
I thought White did a good job and I thought the tempo was good. I liked a lot of things, so I gave both sides curfew off tonight, which is extremely controversial from the Green perspective. But White still has the mandatory thing, so it was a little bit of a compromise, and I just thought the group as a whole did what I was looking for them to do in terms of tempo and effort.
On the performance of Vernon Gholston and Dustin Keller…
Gholston, it's tough to say because, again, I didn't have all the calls, I wasn't following that side or him exclusively, so a little of that I'm going to have to take a look on tape. It's whether or not he was supposed to rush or drop, did he get the right coverages? Some of those things, that's really going to have to come this evening and tomorrow.
With Keller, I liked the fact that he scored a touchdown — that always makes me happy. I don't know how many catches he had, four or five. To see him be involved and have an effect on his first chance, to have an effect in this team environment, a simulated environment, that was good.
On how a playmaking TE can affect the defense…
I think that the play that he scored on is a really good look on how a tight end can affect the defense. Deep down the middle of the field, he gets over the top, catches it, you miss one tackle and you go the distance.
That puts a lot of pressure on defenses because they have to make a decision, how much coverage do you want to push outside on the receivers and how wide open do you want to leave that middle corridor so that you can threaten all three of those areas outside and up the middle. It's a stretch on opposing defenses.
On Keller's ankle being wrapped after the game…
I didn't even notice his ankle was wrapped after the game. A lot of these guys are going to be a little banged up. There's probably some twists. I didn't even know he had it wrapped up.
