Transcript excerpt of quarterback Matt Simms' news conference in front of his locker on Monday afternoon at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
On being told that Geno Smith was going to start against Oakland…
We were just told that we're going to keep things the way they are. They told me they wanted to put me in the second half to maybe give us a little jump start. Obviously, it didn't go exactly the way that everyone wanted it to go because we still continued to play bad offensively. But nonetheless, I was happy that they gave me an opportunity to play. I did some good things out there. Obviously, we didn't put the points on the board, but we did move the ball, we did make a few things happen, got a few nice completions. But hey, back to work and back to the grind.
On if he was disappointed that he wasn't named the starter against Oakland…
Hey, we're competitors, everyone wants to go out there and compete. Obviously, when you get out there on the field and you get a little taste of the real action, all you want is you want more of it. But nonetheless, Geno's the man and I'm going to support him and prepare like I have been. If my number's called again, then I'll go out there and play as hard I can again.
On his performance against Miami…
I thought I did some really good things well. I thought I did a good job of communicating, playing with a good tempo, getting the offense in and out of the huddle, and I made relatively good decisions. Obviously, my pick late was on a fourth-and-16 play where we're just trying to make anything happen late in the game. But overall I thought I did some good things and some things that I can improve upon, too.
On if he thought he played well enough against Miami to be considered to start against Oakland…
I did enough to solidify that I'm still the two, so at least I didn't play myself out of my job [joking]. That's the key. I get to stay around and play football for one more week, and considering the strides that I've made this year, that's good enough for right now.
