*Transcripts of news conferences and interviews in the Jets' MetLife Stadium locker room Sunday night following their 37-16 loss to the Patriots *
HEAD COACH REX RYAN
We wanted to win this game in the worst way. You're not going to beat many teams when you make the mistakes that we made. We've been down this road before. I apologize to our fans. They were ready to go just like I thought we were. It's disappointing, but we can't dwell on it. We have four days until we play Denver, who is playing well. We have to put this game behind us as fast as we can.
On the Jets defensive struggles against the Patriots up-tempo offense...
There were a couple of times where we didn't match up properly, and they threw a couple of quick passes. That's what that team does. You have to be alert. We never got the matchups we wanted, so you have to give them a lot of credit.
On if he was stunned by the mistakes...
I thought we'd play a lot better. I thought we had really improved, I really did. I think we did improve, but when you make those types of mistakes — you fumble a punt, you have a poor timeout ... time management was an absolutely critical error. That's my responsibility. I own that one. You make that many mistakes against that team, there's no chance.
On his halftime interview with NBC when he said a timeout before the half was "the worst play in NFL history"...
That's my responsibility. That's all it is, my responsibility.
On how it's his responsibility...
I'm responsible for everything that happens with this football team. That's my responsibility and it's my fault. I own that.
On the pass protection...
When you're up all those scores, you tee off on the quarterback. That's exactly what they did. We're trying to make big plays downfield, and that's what happens. That defense is a lot better than people give them credit for. They're 32nd in the league and all that, but when you get up a lot of scores on people, you're going to give up yards. Clearly, we have to do a much better job protecting the quarterback.
On the feeling on the bench after the first drive ended with a missed field goal...
Those things happen, but that was the kind of night it was. As great as Nick has been, we missed a field goal, a chip shot. He's been tremendous all season. He missed a 50-yard kick in a crosswind [at Buffalo], but other than that, he hasn't missed a kick all year. It just seems that's what happened to us. It just snowballed.
On how the Patriots drove 80 yards for a touchdown before halftime...
Easy - that's the New England Patriots out there. They had two timeouts. They did a great job and executed. That's what that team can do.
On matchups difficulties with Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski…
About 6'7", I guess. That was one of the issues. The kid makes a lot of plays. He's a factor in the red zone. You have to watch [Wes] Welker. They have a lot of weapons. We tried to match them up in different zones, we tried to bracket sometimes, but the young man did a nice job of catching the football.
On if the defensive play-calling system will change...
No, we'll do what we always do. It'll be the way we've done things for years here. [Defensive coordinator] Mike Pettine is a great football coach, it's not his fault.
On if the division is still attainable…
It looks doubtful right now. What am I going to say? Maybe I should guarantee the fact that we're out of it. The last time I did that, we made the playoffs. Yeah, we don't have a chance.
On the difficulty of playing against lesser known players whose skill sets aren't known...
You have a pretty good idea. They did a nice job. They're a great football team. When you have No. 12 back there, I don't care who else you've got. You see the difference a great quarterback makes in this league. You just have to look down the road at Indy. This guy's an amazing player. You have Vince Wilfork in there. You have a lot of great players on that team. They've done a nice job. James Ihedigbo, I thought, played extremely well as well today.
On the play of Sanchez...
He was inconsistent, like the play of the rest of the team.
On the disappointment that the Patriots will likely win the AFC East…
Well, they have to get past Buffalo, too. It's tough. They beat us twice. We think we're as good as they are, but clearly, we're not. We weren't today, that's for sure.
On the challenge of playing a game on Thursday…
The fact that we just got beat like we got beat, it's probably a good thing, so we can't dwell on it. That's the thing that we have to do - we have to move on. We have to move on quickly. Denver's playing really well on defense. With [Broncos QB Tim] Tebow, to be honest with you, I have to watch him. I don't know what he presents, but he's been running. They've been running the ball no matter who's at tailback. We've got to get ready to go down there. With the way Denver's playing, we know it's going to be a tough game, but we have to get this thing behind us and go play Denver.
On Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson's injury…
I'm not sure. I think it's a knee, but I wasn't real sure. I don't know the severity of it.
QB MARK SANCHEZ
On what happened in the game today…
I think it was just a disappointing loss in all three phases. We expected to play better and it starts with the quarterback. I didn't play well enough for this team to win. I didn't play well enough for our offense to be successful. We weren't good enough on third down and we didn't capitalize in the red zone early on. And then later in the game we started to give them a couple of turnovers, and that took us out of being able to run the ball because we were down by so many points. So it kind of threw us off balance and it's just a disappointing loss. We would have really liked to win this one. We would have positioned ourselves perfectly in our division. But this isn't a one-game season, it never is. We have seven more tough games and one right around the corner on Thursday, so we have to get better.
On giving a team with Tom Brady extra chances…
That was exactly it. We put our defense in a couple tough spots. [Rob] Ninkovich makes a heck of a play on the interception. I didn't even see him coming, and he took it back for a touchdown. So our defense didn't even get a chance to defend them on that one. So we can't give them points like that. You never want to give a good offense like that points.
On what happened with the timeout on the last drive of the first half...
I think it was a situation where we want to run off those [17] seconds or whatever it is before we call timeout. I can hear the coaches in the head set, Schotty [offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer] in the headset talking about wanting to take a timeout. So I took it right away. And that's totally my fault. I can't burn the timeout that early. We have to use all the seconds we can and make it tougher on him to go all the way down the field. And I just have to manage the clock better and that's a rookie mistake, you can't do that in your third year. So that really put our defense in a tough spot.
On how deflating it is to lose twice to New England and know they won't get a chance at them again in the regular season…
It's really too bad because we were in the first game, even until late, and they kind of pulled away. And then this game, we kind of let it get away. Hats off to them for playing mistake free in both games, for not turning the ball over, they did a great job. And we gave them too many opportunities and didn't capitalize on the ones we had.
On if he thought he should have waited to run the play clock down before he called timeout...
No question, absolutely. And that's my fault. I can't burn that timeout that quickly. I heard them talking in the headset about taking a timeout. We were starting to get the play in late. So we figured, we'll take a timeout, we want to capitalize on this down. We need to get points here before the half and get momentum. And that really hurt us, I really hurt the team there. I have to manage the clock a lot better than that.
On how big of a challenge it is to have to play again in four days…
You could look at it two ways, it could be really tough if you let this loss hang over, but you can get the taste right out of your mouth quickly if we go out and win in Denver. It's no easy task with a long trip, elevation and a good team that is playing pretty well, riding some emotion, riding some momentum after a win. So we have our work cut out for us. It's never a one-game season. We would have loved to win this game. It's a disappointing loss of course. I didn't play well enough for our offense to be successful and I didn't play well enough for us to win.
On if he should have waited to call the time out before halftime…
Absolutely. As soon as I heard them talking about a timeout, I burned it right away. So I can't do that.
On how much time was left on the play clock when he called time out…
At least [17], there were probably [17] seconds on the play clock, so it probably would have put it under, it would have had to be under a minute. It would just make it tougher. Could they still go down and score? Absolutely, but it just makes it tougher and if they don't score, even if they just get a field goal or something, it could have helped. I can't put our defense in that position. I just have to be better than that.
On the first drive of the game in comparison to the rest of the drives…
They changed up a little in coverage. I'm curious to see some of the film on it. They played a little better. They started to adjust to things that we were doing and as the game wore on we made too many mistakes. I threw it a little too hard to Shonn [Greene], I have to give him an easier, catchable ball. So that one gets tipped up, deflected. And then Ninkovich makes a heck of a play on the interception for a touchdown. He's playing Dustin [Keller] and hits Dustin, so I'm going to check it down and he runs in front of the checkdown. I just have to see him and play better. I can't give them points like that. We'd all like to play better.
On how the team is feeling after the loss…
It's a disappointing loss, we would have liked to win, it would have set us up real well in the division. Unfortunately, one, I didn't play well enough for this offense to be successful and for us to win. Two, turnovers like that, taking a couple sacks were never good for our offense and we just didn't play well enough. Hats off to them for playing well.
On if he heard "take a timeout" through his headset…
Yeah, they were talking about "We'll, just take a timeout here, talk about the play." As soon as I heard that, I just walked over to the ref and I said "Timeout." You can't do that. We had a running clock. We have to use all the time. That's poor clock management on my part.
On if he realized he made a mistake at the time…
As soon as I did it and I walked over and Rex started walking over like, "Why did you call a timeout?" And I looked back [at the playclock] and I was like, "Can't do that." It's a horrible mistake and you can't make mistakes like that.
On how much this loss complicates the Jets' playoff hopes…
It's the same thing that's happened the last two years. We would've like to win the [division], but we'll need some help from somebody else, and if we get it, great. If not, fine. We've got seven tough games ahead of us and we'd like to win them all. So we've got to win those and see where we're at.
On if there are any concerns about flying to Denver to play on Thursday night…
I don't know. I think I'm just excited to get back out on the field. Any time you don't play your best it's frustrating and all you want to do is play again. If there was any time to get rid of a loss quickly, this is the time. But we're going to have our work cut out for us. Denver's playing pretty well. They're riding some emotion. [Tim] Tebow's got them playing well. So we need a great road trip. We need to be focused. We need to get rid of this loss and move on and know that we have to play well down the stretch.
On if they need to find out why there were so many mistakes…
Sure. I know what happened on a bunch of them. I threw it a little too hard to Shonn [Greene]. You can't do that. He's got good hands, but it's a halfback. You've got to give him a good ball. Bounced right off his head, and the ball should be in his numbers, so an accuracy thing right there. Then the one to Ninkovich. Yeah, he made a pretty good play. He hit Dustin, so I'm going to my checkdown, and he jumped in front of the back and takes it back for a touchdown, so get to the back quicker or see in front of him and don't make that throw, but there was a couple of third downs there where we just weren't our best and a couple of sacks that I took that we can't take. So you add up all those mistakes and you're never going to beat New England with those kind of mistakes. You're playing right into what they do. They play mistake-free. They wait for you to mess up and unfortunately, we messed up.
On if the team was mentally unprepared in some ways…
I don't think it was the preparation. I think, other than being frustrated right now, a lot of guys are surprised because we expected to play well. We really did. I like the game plan going into it. I was confident in the game plan. I liked the play calls as they were coming in. Things were set up right for us, and we went right down the field on the first drive and we don't get a touchdown, we don't get a field goal. It just wasn't our night and it's really too bad, because we worked our tail off all week. So that's fine. Sometimes you go out and you make mistakes, you get beat. We earned what we got tonight. We'll regroup and be ready to play on Thursday.
On if it makes it even tougher for the team when you give Tom Brady extra chances…
Sure, a team like that, they capitalize on your mistakes and you play right into them. You play right into what they want to do. You give them two turnovers like that, one's a pick six, you're digging yourself a really deep hole and it's going to be tough to come back. So it put our defense in a tough spot and it's never fair to them.
CB DARRELLE REVIS
On Rob Gronkowski's performance…
He was outstanding. Him and Tom [Brady], they were connecting every chance they got.
On if he noticed a difference in Brady in the second half…
You saw him get a little bit comfortable back there, but that's on us as a defense. We can't let Tom stay back there. When he has time, he can tear you apart.
On the 37 points being the most allowed at home by the Jets in Coach Ryan's tenure…
It's disappointing. We speak about a lot of things here, and how we want to be as a team, as a defense, and tonight, there were just too many mistakes for us and it cost us.
On the short week coming up…
We just have to take it one day at a time. It's a short week. We have to be there tomorrow. We have to practice tomorrow, just take one day at a time, practice day by day, get our studying in as much as we can and get ready to leave on Wednesday.
RB LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON
On the injury he sustained late in the game…
I'm alright. I'll get some more tests done tomorrow and we'll go from there. My leg got hit low and I grabbed my leg.
On tonight's game and what the team should look forward to down the stretch…
It was a big game for us. We put everything into it and there was a lot on the line. To not win a game is a setback, but at the same time we still have a lot of ballgames to play. The good thing about it is we play Thursday so we can move on quickly. We'll try to get a win Thursday and put it behind us.
On his thoughts about the Denver Broncos…
They've been playing good. Their defense has really been outstanding and Tim Tebow has given them a spark. We are going to have our hands full going to Denver and playing there. It's tough to play there. It's going to be a challenge for us.
S JIM LEONHARD
On how he feels about the loss...
Obviously, frustrated. We all knew how big this game was. You can't make the mistakes we made and beat that team, and yet we continued to try. It's a struggle. You know you have to play good football and they are a team that doesn't beat themselves, and we continue to do that.
On how much it hurts to give New England the lead in the division…
It's tough because this, really for the first time in the last three years since Rex has been here, it's right here. If we win this game, we have kind of a stranglehold on the division and you let it slide. Obviously, there is a lot of frustration. It was a big goal of ours, to go ahead and win this division and we put ourselves in a hole again. I'm not saying it can't happen, but it's unlikely to happen at this point.
On if the defense looking confused at times against the no-huddle offense…
We got caught. We do a lot of matchups. We do a lot of things where we're trying to match personnel, and every once in a while they get in that hurry-up and it catches us. It's something that you know is coming, but at the same time, it's difficult for us sometimes with as many bodies as we have moving around.
WR SANTONIO HOLMES
On why the Jets offense wasn't very successful…
We didn't convert early on third downs, which is one of our things that we thrive off of, and keeping the drives alive. We can't turn the ball over in the red zone when we have opportunities. I can't trip myself up when running to the end zone for an easy touchdown. Things like that happened today and it cost us a victory.
On when he tripped on the first drive…
I just tried to turn up field really quick, knowing that I had the end zone right in front of me. My legs just didn't follow through.
On the New England Patriots performance…
There are a lot of things they did correctly. They moved the ball up and down the field against us.
