Transcripts of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's news conference and selected player interviews following the 16-11 loss to the Redskins at New Meadowlands Stadium:
HEAD COACH REX RYAN
On more details concerning Calvin Pace's injury…
To be honest, I never received a whole lot of details. They said that we expect him to be out for a few weeks, is what we're hoping. It's a big loss, there's no doubt. But we're fortunate because we have a lot of depth at that position. The fact that with Jason Taylor, his M.O. is going to change from 75 percent of the plays to 100 percent of the plays until Calvin gets back.
On message he sent to the team during the post-game talk…
The message was that we can't turn the ball over. All of us should have made that same statement. We did a lot of good things. I like the way we came out in the second half on offense. That was important to us. I like the way we ran the football. There were some positive things. But again, if you turn the ball over like that, that much, it gets ugly.
On the red-zone interception thrown by Mark Sanchez…
You have to realize that there are times to take chances and there are times not to. The way we play defense, kick the field goal, so we're up. The way Nick [Folk] kicks off; the offense will have to drive 80 yards on us. I think that's part of it. We don't need to force passes. We have a good enough offense that the plays will be there. Go through your reads and make throws. He's not going to be perfect by any stretch. But again, it was a mistake, a costly mistake as it took points off of our board basically and it got them out of a hole. He did respond and I think he did a great job responding in the second half and that's what was important to me out of this game.
On Nick Folk's missed extra point attempt…
I have no idea. That's Ripley's, that's a "believe it or not" one right there. I guess you'll have to ask Nick but it looked to me like he hooked the heck out of it. That's hard to explain.
On having concerns with the first team pass defense…
Sometimes when a receiver is open, you have to look at the pass rush. Sometimes when you blitz, a guy can be open late in the downs but there is no rhythm to it. Those are some of the chances you take. Without question, I'm not worried about defense. Our number one defense has not given up a touchdown all preseason. We gave up what, six points, maybe, or nine. You can live with our pass defense for sure. Is it going to be No. 1 in the league like it was last year by 700 yards? I don't know, but we're going to be good enough.
On ending the first scoring drive on a field goal rather than a touchdown…
Anytime you get points, it's good. But you definitely would like to knock it in there and come up with seven. We've been hitting the brakes when we get in the red zone and that's something that we talked about and we have to get better at.
QB MARK SANCHEZ
On tonight's game…
We started off a little slow again and hurt ourselves in the red zone. I just missed on the route to Dustin [Keller] and [DeAngelo] Hall kind of fell right into it. It wasn't a spectacular play on defense other than he caught it. When you miss in the red zone, there are too many people around, so you better be accurate. I just missed him.
On the Jets first drive of the game…
We want to score points in the red zone. When we do get a field goal, it means we have to come back with a touchdown the next drive. I thought we had a great play in that first two-minute drive. It was scripted just like we had in practice — 1:55 on the clock, three timeouts, and we're on the minus-40. We're thinking, OK, we have a real shot to get a field goal, if not a touchdown. We turned the ball over and Santonio [Holmes] felt bad about it. He'll hang onto the ball and we'll be fine and get some points.
On if the Jets' turnovers are alarming…
They're never good. Whether its preseason, playoffs or the regular season, we can't have them and we need to take ownership of them. I need to put it right on Dustin's numbers, right in his hands, and we've got to hang onto the ball.
On his interception…
If anything, it was just a poor throw. Dustin was my number one and he was open. I think I just missed him, maybe a ball length and a half or a couple of feet. That doesn't work.
On the Jets not being sharp…
We're not overwhelmingly pleased, but I'm glad we got a chance in the second half to come back and put together a nice little drive, play into the fourth and score.
On the running backs…
Shonn [Greene] and LT [LaDainian Tomlinson] are a great 1-2 punch, so that's huge for us. LT definitely has something left in the tank. He's ready to prove that and we're excited to play with him.
On converting on third down…
We were 1-for-6 at halftime, which is never good. A lot of that was our fault. It wasn't like these guys were making miraculous plays. Credit them for playing the defenses they were, and being in the right spots, but at the same time, we've got to capitalize on that. We need to make plays when we get opportunities.
On the hit he took in the first half…
I just felt kind of weird, but I jumped right up. Just didn't feel great, but that's part of the game. You've got to play. I'm glad I got a taste of that and got a good hit out of the way. Hopefully, there won't be anymore.
On the red zone offense…
I just missed [Dustin Keller] early on, but I'm glad we got back on the same page. I was ready to throw him the ball quick and he didn't look, and then the next time, he looked when he wasn't suppose to look, so we really weren't in sync. For us to come back and complete three-or-four balls to him on that last drive, that was important. That's the way it can be with Dustin all the time when we're on the same page That's both of us needing to get our chemistry down.
On if the offense will be ready for the start of the season….
Absolutely. We still have two weeks. We just need to really focus these next couple of weeks, take the positives out of this game, and we really have to find a way to start fast.
On the Jets scoring their first touchdown in 10 quarters...
I think it's preseason and we need to take it seriously. It doesn't feel good. It's not a positive. We need to learn from it, find out why it's happening, and be more efficient.
On why the offense has been slow the last two weeks…
We just started slow. When you do that, you have to come back and I'm glad we did in the second half. That was encouraging, but it needs to happen sooner. In that two-minute drive, we were just kind of shooting ourselves in the foot. That's what's really hurting us. The plays are there, we have the personnel, and now we need to make it happen. We have to put it together.
On the running game…
They look great. That's something really to be proud of. Both up front and the running backs are looking great. We are very excited about that.
On playing after hitting his shoulder…
I just kind of fell funny when I got tackled. I threw the ball away real quick and just kind of fell on my shoulder. But I got up and they just checked it out real quick to make sure it was OK. It's fine.
On if there was concern about sitting for two weeks before the regular season opener…
The only good thing about it is that these last two games might not have left the best taste in our mouth as an offense. I think guys are going to be real hungry. When you take away those games, you take away our chance to let out all that energy and stuff that we've built up all week. You take that away for a week and a half or two weeks and I think these guys will be hungry. We'll be just where we want to be.
On if there was overconfidence in the offense…
Any time you don't play the way you want to, it's a good reality check. It's way too early to tell what our identity is on offense. That's what we need to find these next couple weeks. We need to stick to our run game, get sharper in the passing game, and we need to help our defense out. We need to give them a blow. They get tired out there when we give the ball back. We need to be a lot sharper. That's what these next two weeks are about. It's got to happen soon because we are playing against a pretty good opponent.
On if he is unsure about the offense's identity…
No, I think we just need to reach our potential. We need to be things we say we're going to be. We have a chance to do that and really focus the next couple of weeks. I'm excited about the group we have. I know the potential is there, we just have to realize it.
On if he thinks the interceptions are reminiscent of last year…
I think I just missed. I think last year I might have been throwing into double coverage. Hall did a good job catching the ball, but I threw it right to him. I just missed Dustin. If he catches it, he might run him over for a touchdown. It's a just bad throw. It happened. And it just can't happen in the red zone.
On starting slow…
We just need to come out fast on Monday night when we play our first game. We need to come out faster than we have these last two weeks. And if we stall a little bit, we need to come right back and not let it carry over.
On getting touchdowns in the red zone…
We're getting those third downs in the red zone and we're getting field goals. As long as we are getting points, we'll be OK. But we want to turn those into touchdowns, and that will happen when we don't turn the ball over.
On Tomlinson…
The guy has been unbelievable. Lights-out. We need to get him touches. He's doing a great job. He's a great help for Shonn. He converted a third and long again in the red zone when he got on a check down. That's encouraging. He's got such great vision and such great feel. He knows when I start moving, he finds an open lane. It's easy when you have a guy like that.
RB LaDAINIAN TOMLINSON
On the importance of QB Mark Brunell to Mark Sanchez and the rest of the offense…
I think a guy that plays as much football as he has on a high level, Pro Bowls and all that kind of stuff, is a guy that can help out a bunch. Not only out there on the field when Mark comes off the field, but also in meetings, going over film and that type of thing. Don't forget he has been with [Saints QB] Drew Brees the last few years so obviously he's helped Drew out tremendously, so he's going to do the same.
On where the offense is right now…
Well, I think one thing people need to understand is we have been very vanilla this preseason. We have run basic plays and I know at times it doesn't look like we're doing very good, but these are basic plays we're running so we're executing them. We won't really game plan until the season starts, so we're doing fine. I think we're going to be fine.
On the turnovers today…
We're just trying to make plays out there. Sometimes the defense makes a great play. We definitely don't want to turn the ball over in any case, but sometimes things happen. For us, that's when we've got to get it back. When we turn the football over we realize as a unit that we've got to get points back, so that's always our mindset.
On the importance of the running game if turnovers remain a problem…
We're going to try to be balanced. I think that's our approach. We understand that you need to be able to do both in this league so that's going to be our focus.
On the offensive line…
I think you guys saw it yourself. The holes that we had to run through today were tremendous. I'm not sure as a group, what the yards per carry were, but I'm pretty sure it was pretty high. Those guys, they're the best in the league. Last year, they were the best in the league and I think we're going to continue to be the same.
On if this is the best offensive line he has ever had…
No question. Absolutely. These guys are as good as I've ever been around.
On his 43-yard run…
It was a zone scheme and I cut it back. The line did a great job at pushing everybody by. Once I cut it back, I had the safety coming downhill and I knew he was coming too fast to be able to tackle me once I made a move on him. I made the move on him and kind of hit my receiver a little bit trying to get behind him and I kept my balance and was able to get up the field for 43 yards.
On his nine-yard gain on third-and-nine to keep the touchdown drive alive…
That was a big play. We obviously needed to put points on the board. Anytime you get in third-down situations we're thinking first-down to continue the drive. I knew the guys had kind of gotten out of there and they were going to leave me room to work. Once Mark threw it to me I turned around and saw a couple of guys but I was able to get to the first down marker before I got tackled.
FB TONY RICHARDSON
On his concerns…
I've been around football a long time. I remember this time last year we were talking about the running game. Everyone kept saying that we couldn't run the ball and we wound up leading the league and setting a Jets' record. It's not necessarily a concern, we just have to keep working, believe in what our coaches are telling us and working hard.
On being disappointed…
Well it's disappointing on the mistakes we made. When you turn the football over, that's one thing we're trying not to do, and protecting the quarterback. Those are two things we didn't do a good job of and obviously resulted in us not scoring points. I think it's more disappointing than the actual outcome of the game.
On who he is impressed with at this point…
Well, I'm impressed with our defense. Obviously, I haven't been impressed with the way we've been starting on offense. Our job on offense is to score points. We haven't done a good enough job of that. But when you look at the way our defense and special teams are playing, it's kind of encouraging.
T DAMIEN WOODY
On how he felt the offense did tonight…
I thought, as far as the running game, we did pretty well. We had some really nice, efficient runs in the running game, but we were off in the passing game, protections and completions. You want to be balanced in both aspects of the offense. It's one of those things where you have to look at the film, see what corrections have to be made, make corrections and get ready for Baltimore.
On if he's concerned about not being as sharp as they wanted to be…
We definitely didn't score as many points as we set out to, but there were some areas where I felt we did well. It's not in our expectations. We have certain goals that we work to each and every game. We didn't hit that. That's the disappointing part, but like I said, we're going to look at the film, see what corrections need to be made and then we're going to move on to Baltimore.
On where they need to get better…
Definitely the passing game. We have to do better in protection. We have to do better all around in the passing game. The passing game is all about timing and protection and all those things. We just need to do things better all around in that area of the offense. I'm sure we're going to take a good, hard look at it, critique it really hard this week and definitely try to get better and get ready for Baltimore.
