Transcript of head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Thursday's midday practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
Guys that were limited today: James Ihedigbo, Sione [Pouha, back], Trevor Pryce [hip], Darrelle Revis [hamstring], Mark Sanchez [right shoulder], Bryan Thomas [ankle], Damien Woody [knee]. The other thing about Sanchez is I'd like to put down "pimple, limited." There's a little story going around there. Guys that were full: [Antonio] Cromartie with a groin, Shaun Ellis [back], Santonio Holmes [quad], Nick Mangold [shoulder], Matt Slauson [thumb], Eric Smith [concussion] and Robert Turner [thumb]. There you have it.
On Sanchez's pimple issue…
I don't know, it was just a funny thing. It's a long story. I shouldn't have said anything [laughter]. That's it. Sorry, I shouldn't have said anything. That's a first, huh?
On how Sanchez was physically…
You guys saw him today. He was zipping the ball around. I don't know if anybody noticed the one play they put in just for your benefit. We had Sanchez underneath center and flip it to LT [LaDainian Tomlinson] on a toss play and then he ran out for a pass. I think everybody's wanting to pick it up. I'm like, "That would have been great, but maybe you should have been in 'gun because you're ineligible when you're underneath the center." They were playing around. He feels great. He was throwing the ball great today. Like is say, no excuses. They're going to get us at our best.
On Damien Woody…
He's playing. We're still rotating him and Wayne [Hunter] with the starting group. I'll refer to Bill Callahan on that and we'll go with who think is the best guy.
On Woody thinking that he is playing…
Well, there you have it.
On if everybody who is listed as limited is expected to play…
Yes, everybody is expected to play. Period.
On simulating crowd noise during practices…
I don't pick out the music. That's definitely not my iPod because there would be a lot of country on there. Really, if it gets louder than what's been out there, I don't know if that's possible. I shouldn't say that. It gets pretty loud in that stadium. The crowd noise is blasting in from one side, music from the other side. You guys know how it is when you're out there for the short time. It's like, "Can we stop this already?" Make practice as difficult as you can. That way, in a game, hopefully it's the same or even easier.
On the importance of bringing Bart Scott to the Jets…
He's the guy that epitomizes what you look for, a guy that believes in himself, is tough, self-made, a great teammate, a guy that builds people up and will knock the heck out of you. That's the type of guy that you want to bring in, that I wanted to surround myself with. I was fortunate to come here where we already had a bunch of guys like that. We just had to add to it. Take some away and then add to it.
I've said this for a long time, guys that can make play in the National Football League maybe can't for us, the way I envision this team. I'm not saying they weren't good players, but maybe there was something missing that I thought was important. You bring in Bart, you bring in Jim Leonhard and you surround them with the people we have and it worked. It still works. They're going to immediately look at the older guys, so it's important to make sure you had the right guy, the older guys for me, guys that have been in the system a while. You had to get guys who completely believed in it and bought into it and Bart is certainly one of those guys.
On if he thinks the lessons from last year's loss to Peyton Manning and Indianapolis can be applied to this game…
I know every year is different and I know your matchups will be different every year, but certainly you learn. You go in there, you learn from maybe some mistakes you made or whatever, and you move on. The fact you're playing him in the same exact venue, all that kind of stuff, we'll be ready for it and we'll see if we can go out and get the job done. It's not an easy place to play by any stretch of the imagination, but I think we're ready for it.
On if he embraces the idea of his team being the villains…
I think you want to be the enemy going in to everybody's territory because, generally, if you feel that passionately about us and all that, then you have a pretty good football team. That's what you want. It's just like the Yankees. The Yankees are the most-loved team in baseball and the most-hated by everybody. Now that would be ideal. We're short about 26 championships, but that's going to take a few years to catch up [laughing].
That's what you want. You want to be the team that, if people love you and feel good about you and all that, they want to schedule you for homecoming because they can beat you every time. We want to be a team that is respected. You might dislike us and all that kind of stuff, but we want you to respect us and that's what we work hard to do every day. That's the style of play that we have and that's something that's important to us.
On if winning now is the only way the team will earn respect…
Winning helps. There's no question winning helps it. I think your style of play [and] the way you play the game [helps], hard-hitting, tough football. It's like when we beat Pittsburgh, I don't think any less of Pittsburgh because we beat them. I appreciate Pittsburgh because that's a football team. That was a great thing. I respect Pittsburgh. That's what I want. I want to be respected that way as a football team. I always want to be the team that nobody wants to play.
On if the impending snowstorm has altered their travel plans for Friday…
It did alter our plans. We were scheduled to leave later, but now we're going to meet here. We'll depart here at 1:30. It was going to be a couple of hours later than that, but we'll make sure we get in and be ready to go.
On if this first-round game feels like it has taken a long time to come around…
We're ready. We're excited for it. We're ready to go. If they called us up and said, "We want to play the game today," then we'd play it.
On whom the third cornerback will be this weekend...
Drew Coleman will be like a nickel corner. We're going to play more than that though. We'll play [Marquice] Cole. There's Kyle Wilson. There's Dwight Lowery. There are going to be a bunch of guys that will be in there, matching up with this team.
On what puts Drew Coleman ahead of the other defensive backs…
I think if you're looking at a true third guy, he's basically our nickel corner right now.
On if Manning will go after Coleman…
I'm not afraid of that. I'm not afraid of that at all. Peyton is going to throw it to whoever he feels has the best match up and if that's going against Drew Coleman then so be it. I think we'll be ready for the challenge.
On being a great defensive coach going up against a great offensive quarterback…
It's not just a coach on the field. You give the coaching community too much credit. This guy is one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the game. He is one of the smartest guys. It's not just a coach dialing up plays, he dials his own plays up. Each play has three options. He comes up and takes option one, whatever it is. Or "Forget those options, I'm going to go to option four."
This is who he is. The guy is tremendous. There is no one else like this guy in the league. Nobody studies like him. I know [Tom] Brady thinks he does. I think there's probably a little more help from [Bill] Belichick with Brady than there is with Peyton Manning. Tom Moore has done a great job with him for forever, and [Jim] Caldwell and Tony Dungy. It's Peyton Manning. That's who it is.
On "Rex writing checks the players now have to cash" and how he has influenced that comment…
All I'm doing is speaking what I believe to be the truth. Are there doubters? Absolutely. Are there more doubters as each day goes on? Of course. Guys question this and that. One thing you have to understand about me is that I'll be the same person today, the next day, 20 years from now because I believe in myself. I believe in the team we are coaching. I believe we have the best team and the best organization in football.
I don't think it takes guts to say that. If someone doubted me, I've never said, "OK, you're right" and left. I'm going to do the opposite. I'm going to prove it to you. I'm going to prove it to whoever doubts me. That's the way I've been all my life and that's the way this football team is. We know there are doubters. Absolutely. We also believe in each other. We plan on going to the bank, let's put it that way.
On communications issues between corners and safeties…
We've had different meetings and we feel good. I think if the Colts beat us, it's going to be physically, it's not going to be mentally.
On Colts coordinator Larry Coyer's style of defense…
It's a lot different than our style of play. His is predicated on those two great edge pass rushers that they have. It may look like it's a more vanilla style of defense, but it's French vanilla. They do a great job. He built their defense. They play defense based on their personnel. They draft to a certain system.
It's hard to argue their success. They've been to the playoffs nine straight years. There's a lot of teams that don't get it two years in a row or anything else. There are a lot of good teams that don't make the playoffs and they've made it nine straight years. They're doing something right on defense.
On what changed defensively when Coyer became the defensive coordinator…
Not much. I recognize the same defense. There's Cover-2, there's Tampa-2, there's Cover-3, they'll bring guys down in quarter coverage. It's a similar system. It's the same thing with Clyde [Christensen] taking over the offensive coordinator role. It's still the same system. This is the Indianapolis Colts. This is what they do and they do a terrific job of it.
