After a long overnight trip back home from Seattle, Jets head coach Rex Ryan was resolute Monday when asked if he thought sticking with Mark Sanchez could jeopardize his own job.
"I'm confident in who I am and in my abilities. But I've said it a million times, I'm confident in the men who are with me — the coaches who coach with me and the guys who play for me," he told reporters at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. "If that day ever happens, then it happens. But I'm never going to waver. I'm not going to make the decision one way or the other to try and save my job. I'm trying to win games.
"I'm not sitting back and concentrating on how do I save my job," he continued. "I'm concentrating on how do we win. At the end of the day, I'm confident I'll be the coach because I think we'll find a way to win."
While Sanchez will remain the starter, the Jets will also continue to use Tim Tebow out of the Wildcat package. Tebow received 10 offensive snaps against the Seahawks with three negated by penalty, completing three passes for eight yards and adding 14 rush yards on four carries.
"That is something that we do. I said when we took Tim — it could be two snaps, 20 snaps, 50 snaps," Ryan said. "Depending on an opponent, I still believe that to be a true statement. We had more with Tim running the Wildcat — we had more of those plays up this week. Some brand new things that quite honestly looked like caught them off guard a little bit. We missed a few things execution-wise and that was disappointing."
The Jets had three false start penalties, three turnovers and Sanchez was sacked three times in their 28-7 Week 10 loss. After limiting Marshawn Lynch to 2.7 yards a carry over the first three quarters, the defense finally broke in the fourth as the 'Hawks RB finished with 124 yards and the home team had three long scoring passes.
"The self-inflicted wounds, that's the thing that is really driving me crazy," Ryan said. "Those are things that we can't emphasize more."
After dropping five out of six and falling to 3-6 overall, the Jets need to find a way to turn the tide.
"This team wants to win in the absolute worst way. We haven't been getting it done, but we also know that there's not a magic play, there are no magic words or circumstances that are going to get it done," Ryan said. "It has to be through hard work and getting better and making small steps."
Ryan, who has never had a losing season as Jets head coach, was determined as ever despite a limited amount of sleep.
"Whatever it takes. We're going to get this done or die trying," he said. "That's how we'll approach it."
