On Monday CB Darrelle Revis, WR Jerricho Cotchery, C Nick Mangold, FS Dwight Lowery and DE Trevor Pryce spoke to the media about the upcoming AFC Championship Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers and Sunday's defeat of the New England Patriots.
CB Darrelle Revis
On how much playing at Pittsburgh earlier this year can help the Jets…
“I think it helps a lot. I think just playing on the road; we’ve won a lot on the road this year, and this postseason we’ve been on the road as well, so I think we carry ourselves with a lot of character going into the game. We might be the underdogs, and we have to prove everybody wrong.”
On what he learned from playing in the AFC Championship Game last year…
“Just execute and don’t make mistakes. In the AFC Championship Game last year, we made a lot of mistakes. We were up 17-12 at halftime and in the second half, we made a lot of mistakes that (Indianapolis QB) Peyton (Manning) took advantage of. In this game, we’ve just got to have no mistakes and play a perfect game.”
On whether he feels any additional pressure after coming so close…
“We’re back in the same place. I think we’re excited, we enjoy it, because anything less would be failure. I think we’re OK. We just need to take this week and work hard and prepare. We’re one game away from where we want to be. We’ve talked about it all year about going to the Super Bowl and winning it, so this is just another stepping stone. We don’t need to put the pressure on us; just relax and be confident in what we believe in.”
On whether the team is satisfied that they are back in the AFC Championship Game…
“We’re very excited. We were very excited after the win. Everybody doubted us and we just wanted to prove people wrong. We knew the game was going to be tough against (New England QB) Tom (Brady) and the Patriots, but we believed. I think that’s the thing about this team: we have a lot of confidence, and at one point we’ve got to back up what we say and we do that.”
On how playing at Pittsburgh will compare to playing at New England last Sunday…
“I think we’ve got to take the same approach, of this just being a road game and this being a hostile environment. New England is a tough place to play; and playing at Pittsburgh, I’ll say it’s tougher than playing the Patriots. We’ve just got to take the same approach. We know it’s a road game, but also in the back of our minds we know it’s the AFC Championship.”
WR Jerricho Cotchery
On what he needs to do in preparation for this week’s game…
“Our goal is to win the Super Bowl, so with that in mind, you have to prepare like you’ve never prepared and do all the little things throughout the course of the week to make sure you’re putting yourself in the position to get to the Super Bowl, and that’s the most important thing.”
On what the difference will be for the Jets this year after last year’s AFC Championship Game appearance…
“Experience. We know what to expect going into someone else’s backyard. We have a lot of guys that have played in the AFC Championship Game; and guys that were down in Baltimore with (Jets head coach) Rex (Ryan), this is their third straight championship game. So we have guys that have played in these types of games, and that experience alone should help us.”
On the difference in Pittsburgh’s defense with SS Troy Polamalu on the field…
“Not having him the first time around, that hurt them, but they still have guys come in and they play well. But we’re up to the challenge. We’re just trying to get to the Super Bowl. We’re going to prepare like crazy this week to go out there and get it done.”
On the team’s celebrations after Sunday’s win at New England…
“I’d like to celebrate with my family, but winning the game with my teammates, being out there with my teammates, this is family as well, so we celebrated together. We enjoy our wins together. We work hard. We work extremely hard to go out there and to get those results that we want to see, so being able to get a win out there - any time we get a win - we want to celebrate together because we’ve worked extremely hard to put ourselves in that position.”
On what he thought when he saw his teammates’ celebrations after Sunday’s win at New England…
“It means a lot to us, and when you seeing guys celebrating and just soaking in the moment, it feels good. It feels good to see it, and everyone is just enjoying the moment, and that’s the best thing about it.”
On New England Patriots WR Deion Branch’s comments about the Jets’ postgame celebrations…
“I’m not sure what he’s talking about. I didn’t see anything. I know he had a few words for our sideline throughout the course of the game. I don’t know what he saw after the game, so I can’t really say what went on there.”
FS Dwight Lowery
On what head coach Rex Ryan’s message was to the team before Sunday’s game at New England…
“There was no surprise. Everyone was obviously excited about the opportunity that we presented ourselves with. We knew we’d be back there at some point and we took advantage of the opportunity that we had. Now it’s on to the next one.”
On whether there is an advantage in the Jets having already played at Pittsburgh this season…
“I don’t know. I mean, you look at the last Patriots game and what happened during that Monday Night game, and we went there and were able to pull out the victory yesterday. So in terms of preparing for that team, you have something to look at in terms of going against them head to head, but this is a totally different situation. This is to go to the Super Bowl, so it’s going to be a different game.”
On whether the first game in Pittsburgh earlier this year will prepare the Jets for the atmosphere…
“No, this is a playoff game. It’s different.”
On what he thinks the phrase ‘Same Old Jets’ means now…
“It’s probably a good thing because we’re in the AFC Championship Game again, so they can say whatever they want. It doesn’t matter. We’re in the championship game and we plan on winning it and going to the Super Bowl.”
On what he can draw from last year’s AFC Championship Game and apply to this year’s game…
“It’s a 60-minute ballgame. The first 30 minutes of the Colts game, we were ahead going into halftime. Actually, right before the half we had some miscues on defense and they were able to score right before the half and give them some momentum going into halftime. Just understanding that it’s a 60-minute football game, no matter what’s going on, there’s always a way to come back and win the football game. You saw it last week with Pittsburgh and Baltimore: they were down at half by a lot and came back and won the football game, so the game’s not over when it’s in the playoffs. You have to play for 60 minutes.”
C Nick Mangold
On whether it helps having played at Pittsburgh earlier this year…
“I think there’s a little help to it, but I think it’s a whole new scene with the playoffs. I think you saw that with last week’s game going up to New England, so I think it’s good that we’ve been there, we can understand a little bit, but I don’t think it’s going to mean as much as what we do this week and how we prepare and how we play.”
On the advantage of being familiar with how Pittsburgh plays…
“It’s as much of an advantage to us as it is to them. They saw us just as well, so it’s a clean slate going into it. It’s a big game and I’m excited to see what our guys can do.”
On how important it is to the Jets to go a step farther than last year…
“It’s huge. We got here last year, and it’s fantastic and it was a great accomplishment, but it’s not what we set out to do. We set out to go further and that’s what we’re expecting.”
On whether it would be a disappointment to get this far and not make the Super Bowl…
“I’m not even going to get into the idea that we’re not going to win. I think if you start off with that kind of attitude, you’re bound to lose, so it hasn’t crossed my mind.”
On how the Jets can re-create the same type of emotion against Pittsburgh that they had last week at New England…
“I think with the AFC Championship, if you can’t get up for that, you might as well not even be in the building. It’s a great challenge for us. It’s a team that’s playing really well, and it’s going to take all of us for 60 minutes to be able to get the job done.”
On how much it helps having played in the AFC Championship Game last year…
“I think it’ll help a little bit. I think understanding how far we got last year and how close we were, we don’t want to be close again and miss out. I think guys understand that and feel that this is our opportunity. We’ve made good strides from last year and I’m looking forward to getting out there and playing the game.”
On the Jets’ confidence being perceived as arrogance by some observers…
“I don’t think so. I think we trust in what we do. We understand that you’ve got to have confidence in the way you go about things and the way we prepare during practices and the way we play games. If you don’t have that confidence, you’re going to be wishy-washy and it’s not going to go so well for you. So I think it’s more of a confidence, but you can see it being construed as arrogance, but to me it’s more just trust from each guy that they know that the other guy is going to be pretty confident.”
DE Trevor Pryce
On Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger…
“You can’t prepare for what he naturally does. How do you prepare to tackle a guy who’s as big as a polar bear? How do you prepare for a guy that can flick the ball 50 yards at the drop of a dime? How do you prepare for a guy that can run like he does? How do you prepare for that? How do you prepare for someone who wants to win like he wants to win and that kind of franchise? You don’t prepare for it; you do your best with the X’s and O’s, but he’s really unique.”
On whether defensive linemen respect Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger’s ability to shrug off contact…
“Absolutely. When I was in Baltimore, my first year, (LB) Bart (Scott) kind of decapitated him and he came back in the game. And you know what he did? He said, ‘Great hit, Bart.’ He’s not that guy; he’s not going to run his mouth to you, he’s not going to do any of those type of things and he gives respect where respect is due, so you’ve got to respect him for what he is and what he’s accomplished.”
On whether head coach Rex Ryan cautioned the team about overconfidence following Sunday’s win over New England…
“He didn’t say too much about it. Actually, the Patriots kind of beat us in a lot of areas: they had more yards, they played better on special teams. They beat us in a lot of places. You know what I mean? It’s hard to come back and beat a team after you beat them 45-3. If they’d have beaten us 42-45, they’d have probably had a better chance.”
On preparing for Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger in practice this week…
“I don’t know who’s going to play quarterback. I don’t know who’s going to be Big Ben. It might be me, the way he plays. It’s an honor and a privilege to play against him. It really is.”