Transcript of Jets head coach Rex Ryan's news conference with local reporters following Wednesday's midday practice:
As far as our injury report, Shaun Ellis did not practice. He has a broken hand. We're telling him it's going to be just fine. Thomas Jones was held out like we've been doing the last several weeks. We've held him out of practice. Tony Richardson, normally on the coach's plan of being held out of practice, he does have a rib injury, but he'll be just fine. Guys that were limited: David Harris, with an ankle, Bart Scott with an ankle. Bart's is probably a little worse than David's, but both of them will be fine. Guys that are full: Mark Sanchez, knee, and Danny Woodhead, knee.
On what qualities Darrelle Revis has that allowed him to make such rapid progress…
Probably everything. When you look at him, he's a tough kid. Aliquippa is where he's from, I believe that's where Mike Ditka's from. Probably got some toughness in that community. He's got a great skill level. When you're looking at great corners, two things that they have to have: Can they find the football and can they catch it? He can do both of those things as well as anybody in the league.
On what having Revis allows him to do on defense…
It's unusual. I've never had a corner this good. I've had some great corners, Samari Rolle, Chris McAllister, Aeneas Williams. Some guys I've been around are great corners. But generally you match them on the second receiver and double their good receive, their top receiver. With Revis, you're able to take out their best receiver, and then roll your coverage to a lesser receiver almost daring your opponent to go ahead and throw it to your best receiver. That's where you want the ball to go most of the time. You want to target him. You can look at the attempts that were thrown towards Revis because of the fact the No. 1 receiver is who he was covering. We want that matchup. We want you to throw it over there, because we think we have just as good a chance of catching it as you do.
On trying to contain Peyton Manning in two-minute drives…
The best thing you can do, obviously, is not give him an opportunity. I'll tell you, Bill Belichick is the best in the league at this, preventing opponents from getting two-minute drives. That is a thing that he always preaches and things that I stole off of him through my brother. It's so critical. I think we've done a really nice job of it this year. I believe we've given up three points in that situation all season. Now at the end of the game it's been well documented we've given up 17 points in the last one of the fourth quarter. Clearly it's a scary scenario to have Peyton Manning have the football with the game on the line, but you know what? I'll take that matchup if that's the case.
On what it does to a team when Manning scores at the end of the first half…
You can sometimes give up three, you just can't give up the touchdown. Last week you saw where it looked like Baltimore did a great job, they're going to hold them at three points. They get that extra play and stick it in for a touchdown. That just kills you. Breaks your back, it really does.
On the development in the offense…
It's just a natural progression a little bit. I think Mark has more confidence than he had then. It was starting to come together for him. This is the best football team that we've had all year. If Indy's going to beat us, this is the best. We have absolutely no excuses. That's the best we've played on defense, best we've played offense and special teams as well. They're getting us at our best. We'll see if it's good enough. I hope it is, and I think it will be.
On what struck him about Sanchez before the team drafted him…
He moved like, I'm not going to say Joe Montana, but he had great great feet. He sets up like a quarterback. He's got that presence. He can make all the throws. He can make the hard throw on the far hash, the outs and the comebacks. He puts enough zip on it, and he's also got touch. He was really a well-schooled quarterback. There is no question. Whether it's Pete Carroll, of course had him in college, then you move on. I think in high school, he's been well tutored, that's for sure.
On how the team got to this point…
It was something we certainly were banking on. I remember standing up and saying we'll see. Somebody's going to have egg on their face. And I don't think it was going to be me. But I just had a strong belief in our football team. I thought all the things that we did building up to that part of the season, it was going to Cortland, doing all those things. I thought we had a close football team. It was just a matter of time before we righted the ship, so to speak. I honestly believe that. I think everybody in our locker room believed it. It's really worked on out that way.
On if he has to worry about players keeping their emotions in check…
No. We're going to come out with every emotion we have on Sunday. There's no question about that. I know the Colts will too. All the emotion, we're a team that doesn't take ourselves too seriously until it comes to the football business. And our guys are going to prepare. We're going to do the media requests that goes along with it. That's kind of our reward. When there [were] three media people up in the stands for us one time, we definitely took notice.
On superstitions…
Do you see this grease-stained shirt here? [laugher] You can go back and look at it, trust me. There's a ton of them. I have a whole bunch of them. That's not the important thing. We're not superstitious, but we're not dumb either. We're not taking any chances. I haven't had a haircut for several weeks and I've got three more to go.
On if he thinks anything he says adversely affects the team…
No, I don't. I think you better believe in yourself, you better believe in your football team. That's all it is. There's never a disrespectful thing. I don't try to say anything disrespectful to the opponents that we're playing. It's all about our football team and the belief that we have. The only time I wish I had a mute button is when NFL Films has me miked up for a game. Sometimes that one's brutal, but you don't even realize it [smiling].
On Shonn Greene…
Our scouts did a great job. [General manager] Mike Tannenbaum and Joey [Clinkscales, vice president, college scouting] and JoJo [Wooden, assistant director, player personnel], all those guys up there, Terry [Bradway, senior personnel executive], all those guys really had a back that they couldn't wait for me to see. They said, "You're going to love this guy." When I watched the tape, absolutely. I saw a guy that was just a big powerful back, a Big Ten back that just ran hard, great vision, great feet, all those kind of things that you look for. The coach that really stood on the table for him was our running back coach Anthony Lynn. He was the number one back on his board for the style of play of our offense.
On if he ever spoke with Eric Mangini…
No. I like Eric. My brother's been there, they're real close. This wasn't about Eric. This was about me coming in. I was going to be true to myself. I never really needed to get advice from anybody else. I was coming here open-minded. I just wanted to put our plan in place, and that was what I focused on. It wasn't about things were done this way or that way. That meant nothing.
I could have followed anybody here, but I was going to try to put together what I thought was a vision for our team and building a winner. That's my style. If Eric goes somewhere else, he's going to do it his way, and Bill Belichick would. For me to be successful, this was something I thought was important for our football team. And again, that's my style. If he goes somewhere else, he's going to do it his way, and Bill Belichick would and everybody else. But for me to be successful, this was something I thought was important for our football team.
On missed field goals by opponents…
I said it after the game, anything can happen in the playoffs. It's tough to kick these field goals, All that kind of pressure and things like that. Nate Kaeding is a great kicker. The next one was 57 yards, so unless you've got Tom Dempsey over there, you probably never felt great about that. The last one, sometimes the situation is tough. I think that particular end of the field is hard to kick. I was watching warmups and felt that. Maybe some of it has to do with our punt rush. With Mike Westhoff and I know Ben Kotwica every Wednesday gets that defense in there and they look at the field goal protection and how they're going to attack. I've got to give them a lot of credit.
On if Revis will be the best ever at his position…
That's a tall order, but we'll see. If you look at it, he's well on his way, that's for sure.
On Sanchez's confidence level…
I think it's because him and Schotty [Brian Schottenheimer] are just like this. This is his offense, too. It's Brian's; it's his; it's the New York Jet offense. He's confident. He knows the system, and he's ready to go. He's running around out there like he's having the time of his life.
On how confident he is that the defense can make Manning uncomfortable…
You have to do something. Whether you get him off the spot somehow, whether that's blitzing, whether that's having a guy beat somebody up front, whatever it is. You've got to try to get them off the spot. You can mix your coverages, you can do all those kind of things. He's seen it all, but you just hope there is a slight hesitation where he's not able to just sit back and fire it at will on you.
On if he thinks his defense is capable of making Manning uncomfortable…
Yeah, we certainly hope so.
