*Transcript of Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez's news conference following Friday's midday practice: *
On the messages he received after the Falcons game…
They just put it to me in a way that this could be our last shot at it this year. "We love the way you play, we obviously love your instincts." Coach Schottenheimer always says there is a point where you have to say uncle. Sometimes the defense wins, sometimes plays break down and you just let it go. Those are the kind of messages they were sending, and then a lot of it was really positive: "Look how far you've got. Look at how many wins you have as a rookie already." Just after a tough loss. "So have you thrown picks? Yeah, and has everyone thrown picks? Yeah. Don't worry about it, just keep getting better and you're only going to learn the offense better next week and you're only going to know it a little better the week after that so just keep playing and having fun."
On how useful those messages were…
It's been great and the best part was they weren't talking down to me. They were talking to me like I'm one of the guys, and that's always what I've tried to be as the quarterback here or on any team I've played on, just one of the guys who happens to be the leader and can lead. I think the best part was the exchange we had. It wasn't them just hammering something to me and not letting me talk about it, but after that, I said, "Hey, look, keep talking to me like that, keep that going." Coming into the huddle, hey, third down, or during a timeout, OK, fourth quarter, two minutes left, those are the things I'm saying to myself, but now I have T-Rich [Tony Richardson] and now I have Thomas Jones even helping me with it: "On this one I have a drag, on this one I'm running balloon and going to be checking down over the ball if there's nothing there." That's the last thing I hear from TJ. If something is not open or a receiver falls down or we get pressure, I know where TJ is going to be because he reminded me. Stuff like that just opened the door of communication and it's been awesome.
On his codes…
I don't know if it would sound right. There's no real red, yellow and green. It's just talking through situations and stuff between him and I.
On being aware of the pressure of the "big games"…
Just treating it like any other game, doing the same stuff throughout the week on and off the field, being smart, getting my rest. I think that's the most important thing that I've seen. T-Rich and TJ reminded me again, just make sure you get your rest. I said, "Man, I know, because I go home and I'm excited for this game and I get this burst of energy at like 11 o'clock at night and if I don't get down right away I'll stay up until two in the morning. I know how I am." Just being excited and you know, studying the game plan, nothing has really changed. It's just been important for me to understand that you don't always get to come back here, that it really is a privilege to be here. And once you get by all of the excitement of it and distractions, you just focus on playing.
On what he has learned during the postseason…
One, these teams are very good. Every team you play is just ready. They are a little bit faster. Things happen even faster than the regular season, and that felt like a blur. Now you get going to these away stadiums, you have to be ready for the noise. One of the most important things is weathering the storm when you play at an away stadium and knowing that there's going to be things that pump up the crowd. I thought San Diego did an unbelievable job of keeping their crowd energized, into the game. During time outs and TV time outs, they had the marine corp. from right down the street from camp and they would have on there saying "Go Chargers" or something like that and that was usually during the time out when you usually get a breath of fresh air to regroup and everything and these guys were going nuts. This is different. So you just learn from each experience, and understand how important these games are and then even more than the regular season, they are just so important. Just the value of maintaining the football and drawing out your time of possession and if we keep doing that, we'll be all right.
On if plays have changed over the past few weeks…
I think things have just gotten set up that way with the way we are calling plays and Coach Schottenheimer feeling how we are running the ball, talking to Coach Cavanaugh, talking to Coach Callahan, talking to the guys up in the booth, what looks open, what looks good, and those happen to be good plays. It could be a drop back play this week and it could be something on the run. Whatever works for us. We obviously rely on our run game and when we have to throw it we need to be accurate and if there's a play where I'm on the move, running is always another option. We have just really been in sync and kind of known what we needed at each time and Coach Schottenheimer has done a great job of that.
On his ability to throw on the run…
A lot of that came from last season at SC, just throwing well, the naked bootlegs. They came pretty easy to me, to my left, to my right. A lot of times it's uncommon to roll left and throw left as a right hander. I was just comfortable doing it and I think we just hit our groove as an offense, and we just want to stay with what we are doing and play smart.
On if he gets nervous before "big games"…
More excited, not nervous, like scared to go play or afraid of the opportunity. Just excited just to see what it looks like because you've built up this picture in your mind of going on the field, "OK, I know what our first play is, I have an idea of what kind of defense they are going to run," you think, you prepare all week, you hope you have some sort of idea. It's the coolest thing in the world just knowing that everybody in that stadium, everybody on your team, on their team is watching and waiting for you to say go, waiting for you to hike the ball. It's going to be great. We are very excited for the opportunity and definitely want to take advantage of it.
On if he's thought about being the first rookie quarterback to win the Super Bowl…
More than just that, more than the individual stuff. That's great, that's wonderful, but to see how many guys on this team have really reached out to me and tried to make me comfortable, expressed their support during tough times, during great times, those are the guys who you want to win it for. You want to look around and see the confetti, I'm not going to be looking at myself covered in confetti. I'm going to look at Coach, TJ, those guys, that's what we want to see, but we have to take care of this week first. Every time you start to daydream it just makes it more real, makes it more fun, more exciting and makes you want to focus even more. It's been a fun week but we need to end it well.
On how he feels right now…
I'm excited, thrilled at the opportunity, thankful for the guys around me and just ready. Focused and ready.
On playing "fast"…
A lot of it was just the way we have been preparing these last few weeks. If I ever had a question on anything, I'm going to ask it and then ask it again. If I wanted to see one more clip one more time the night before games, "Hey, Nick [Mangold], let's watch that blitz tape one more time. Who are you pointing the Mike on this one?" Does Nick have to do that? No. Does he know every Mike point in the world? Absolutely. It's just one of those things, it's a sense of assurance, why not, because I don't want to go home next week. I would rather be here studying and asking questions next week. I don't want to go home. This is too cool. This is too fun. You might as well. Don't leave any stone unturned, watch the extra ten minutes of film or whatever it is, but I felt like I was mentally fast last week.
On his knee…
I felt all right, felt pretty good.
On what he did a year ago today…
Last year, the 15th is when you had to declare, so this was the first week of working out in Orange County. Moved into the apartments down there where Colt McCoy, Damian Williams, running back from Stanford, Toby Gerhart, all those guys are now. Thinking about whether I was going to the Super Bowl for media stuff last year, about this time, and now we might go to play, which would be nice. Yeah, it's been a long year. With athletes first, I have Coach Johnson there at Mission Viejo High School and we worked out at a couple different places there. So it was good.
On if he's talked to Eli Manning…
I haven't gotten a chance to talk to Eli. I talked to him before the season when we were doing the Toyota stuff, but other than that, not really. The preseason game, just real briefly. I did see their center, Shaun O'Hara, and he was just excited. He said, "Dude, it's so cool. Keep it going, win it for New York and we are all pulling for you." So that was pretty cool.
On what winning would mean for Jets history…
I just don't think we are playing for that. That's not what we talk about when Rex brings us up after practice. He's not talking about erasing history. He's not talking about any curses. We don't buy into that too much. We just trust in what we're doing and trust in what he's told us all year. That's a coach that's been there before, so we trust him just like I trust the guys who have been in this stage before, TJ, Alan [Faneca] and [Damien] Woody. Those are the guys that I want to hear from. I don't want to hear about stuff like that, it doesn't matter to us. We just have to play well and focus.
On if he is more relaxed now than his first NFL game…
It feels similar. It does feel similar as it did when we were going to Houston. You don't know exactly what to expect. You have an idea, you've heard from people, but all you know is it is going to be big. You just want to be ready.
