Selected quotes from the Jets' and Raiders' locker rooms at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum following the Jets' 45-20 loss to the Raiders this afternoon:
Head coach Todd Bowles on little going right for the Jets after Kalif Raymond's late-first-half muffed punt...
"The effort was there, and we fought. Too many plays in the second half, too many big plays. The fumble can't happen. Can't turn the ball over in your territory right before the half. We still had momentum. We might have grown as a team with this loss, so the guys start believing in each other, and they played hard. We can't just have mistakes here and there."
Bowles on how the Jets defense has played the first two weeks of the season...
"Consistently, not very good at all."
Bowles on how small the margin of error is for the Jets...
"Obviously, it is very small. We have new guys, we've got young guys. ... It's very small. As we come together, we've got to make sure we're on point on everything. We can't afford to give games away and give plays away and try to make up for them."
QB Josh McCown on the first TD pass of 34 yards to Jermaine Kearse...
"It's hats off to Coach Morton [OC John Morton] for dialing that up. He talked about it all week: Let's push the ball downfield on this play. It's going to be third-and-2 but we're not going to play scared, we're going to put it downfield. So it's hats off to him, hats off to Jermaine for making the play and the guys up front for protecting. There were a lot of moments like that where things that we talked about during the week, plays we came up with, came to fruition. ... Those are things we can build on as we put together this offensive unit."
Kearse on the growing chemistry between him and McCown...
"It's getting there. But at the end of the day, I'm here to win football games. So when you're not doing that, all the other stuff don't matter."
C Wesley Johnson on the Jets' running game, which gained 126 yards on 25 carries for 5.0 yards/carry...
"It can be as good as we want it to be. We had a good game today. I don't really want to dwell on it too much because we lost by 20 points. ... We were happy how we ran it. Obviously we can do better."
DL Leonard Williams on the way the game unfolded in the second half...
"We came out strong in the first half. The offense was scoring and getting long drives. Suddenly everything was rolling in a good way. Besides the fumble, I just felt we didn't come out and start as fast as we should have in the second half. That first drive in the second half means a lot."
Raymond on what was going through his mind on the sideline after his muffed punt...
"I mean, shoot, man, up until this season I've never had a muffed point before, so more than anything I was just mad at myself, man. It's definitely just a focus thing. You're back there, you just got to make it happen, man."
Rookie S Marcus Maye on what the final score tells him about the Jets...
"I mean, the scoreboard says what it says. But as far as what I saw from my guys, we fought hard. You know, we were a lot better than we were last year in certain areas. We gave up a few plays that we shouldn't have given up. We have to keep doing the small things."
LB Demario Davis on the Jets' 0-2 start and playing their first two home games in the next two weeks...
"Not good enough. We've got to get better. Everybody's got to look at himself and find a way to get better. ... We've got two home games back-to-back. We've got an electric atmosphere at home. We'll go back home now, correct the film, then go out and get a W."
