http://www.newyorkjets.com/blog/posts/1287--a-step-back-now-we-have-to-respond- 10/13 — Two things came across loud and clear from Jets head coach Rex Ryan's recently concluded conference call with reporters early this afternoon following the Monday night 31-27 loss to the Dolphins. Rex is still ticked. And he's putting it on himself as well as his coaches and players to get unticked quick. "Absolutely, it was a humbling experience, and the competitor in me is mad," Ryan said. "It's like OK, I've had bad games in the past, but I've never surrendered three leads in the fourth quarter to anybody." Since he assumed coordinator status in 2005, that's a true statement. In fact, Ryan was involved in only two previous games as Baltimore's defensive coordinator when the Ravens lost as many as two leads in an entire game. In 2005 Baltimore beat Houston, 16-15. In 2007, the Ravens lost to the Browns, 33-30, in overtime. Rex put the playcalling onus on himself around midnight in the Land Shark Stadium visitors' interview room, and today he reiterated some things he wanted to have done better. "We knew they had two outstanding backs. The thing I never gave enough credit to was Henne," he said of QB Chad Henne, who completed 20 of 26 passes overall and hit four third-down completions to move the chains, three coming in the last quarter. "He made some great throws during the game. He was on fire. And he made some good third-down calls. All we had to do was make one play, but to his credit he was making those plays." Another area Ryan questioned himself on was on the week's preparation. "I wasn't happy with our scout teams last week," he said. "I think we had a decent mental week, we had a couple of mental gaffes. But you can't be a consistent defense if you don't know where your guys are going to be. They've got to play off each other, and the only way to do that is they've got to go full-speed in practice. "If I'm going to play a block a certain way, I think we've got to show that on the practice field. Maybe it looked different on the practice field than it did on the game field. Till we get that consistency, we're not going to be a dominant defense. You can't go at the pace of your scout team. You're either coaching it or allowing it to happen. I'm not going to allow it to happen." But the good news from the coach's viewpoint is that in his experience his defenses always bounce back. "I go back to last year, two times," Ryan said of the Ravens' defense of '08. "The Colts, they lit us up, and we played the Giants. Both times that unit responded. And I'm expecting this unit to really respond. I know we have the talent, the pride and character. We're embarrassed by the way we played. "I know we truly won't get it back till we play Miami again, but this week right now presents its own problems. Buffalo has some outstanding weapons. We've got to get it done right now. We're not looking past anybody. This is a must-win for us. I think we have to respond. And I think playing at home in front of our fans is going to be huge for us. "This was a step back. Now we've got to make a huge leap forward." Rex Cetera WR Jerricho Cotchery was used sparingly at Miami due to the hamstring that had bothered him during the week, but Ryan said Cotchery didn't aggravate the injury in the game. "We'll know more later today. I think he came out of the game fine." ... Similarly, nothing more on Brad Smith, who left the game with a foot injury. Rex said he was "really encouraged" by the play of WR Braylon Edwards, QB Mark Sanchez and the offense. And on David Clowney, who had four receptions for 72 yards, he said, "I was proud of the way David played. He was the intended receiver four times and he caught four passes. He also had his guy burned a couple of other times and we couldn't get him the ball. "I truly believe we'll bounce back," Ryan added. "As confident as I was last week that our offense would bounce back, I feel the same way about our defense." The coach on the two successful fake punts called by special teams coordinator Mike Westhoff: "Mike does a great job of studying the opponent. We thought we had a couple of available. ... To Mike's credit, he saw the opportunity. He knows he's got the green light from me anytime." Sanchez: Another Pepsi Nomination Sanchez received his fourth nomination for Pepsi Rookie of the Week. He completed 12 of 24 passes for 172 yards and one touchdown to Edwards, led three TD drives of 63 yards or longer, and made the longest completion of his career to date on the 53-yard connection with David Clowney. Sanchez, who won the award after each of his first three games, has competition this week from Colts WR Austin Collie, Eagles WR Jeremy Maclin, Broncos RB Knowshon Moreno and Giants WR Hakeem Nicks.
How is that supposed to restore confidence? That Ryan said the reason why our defense sucked was because of the scout team half-assed it in practice? I like how he's not blaming a specific individual, but please, the scout team?
great article...thanks for posting that, Mick. I never lost faith....but this is nice positive reinforcement. Rex will have these guys well prepared for Buf.
Is it really that hard to believe? Like he said it's hard for our defense to prepare when our scout team is 10 paces behind the real thing.
Because he took the blame and accepted that they underestimated Henne. They won't underestimate anybody from here on out.
I like how Rex always tries to bring confidence to Sanchez. Like after the Saints game, he said stuff like "This is a team loss. The whole team needed to play better" etc when really Sanchez blew it. Then yesterday Sanchez played pretty good and the defense blew it and instead of saying team effort loss Rex was like "This was on me. The defense played horrendous." etc. Kinda hypocritical, but I think Rex handled each situation the right way the last 2 weeks.
Guys, the biggest thing to remember here is...Rex is a ROOKIE HC! Yeah, we started 3-0, but we weren't going to finish 16-0. Adjustments will be made, he'll learn from his mistakes, and the team will IMPROVE. On a scale of 1-10, you never BEGIN the season at 10. This team is running at an overall 6-7 right now. Bet your ASS Rex will be prepared for our next meeting with the Dolphins.
Did you expect Danny Woodhead and Kevin O'Connell's version of the wildcat be up to speed with 2 of the league's better backs? The scout team is just there to provide looks. These drills are rarely full contact and there's even a smaller possibility that they will tackle on these drills. They are usually there for the defense to get their pre-snap reads and make sure they react accordingly to their correct assignments/coverages after the ball is snapped. I think we can all agree that our poor tackling and inability to shed blocks was our biggest flaw last night, which has nothing to do with how our scout team ran the ball during the week. It has to do with our defense taking a game off, plain and simple.
The bright light I see in all this is normally the O has the tendency to come out flat if the D doesn't hold their end and vice-versa. This could've been a really, really....REALLY ugly game for us. Defensively AND offensively. Look at the 49ers playing at home against the Falcons. Their defense came out flat, sloppy, un-prepared, etc. and got blown out 41-10 in their own house. Instead, we were leading in this game with 5 minutes left to play. The home team was able to make enough plays to get downfield and score on us with :06 left to win the game. I guess what I'm trying to say is, some kind of confidence should exude from playing our absolute worst defense--by far--for the year, and still show we had a real chance to come out with a win. All we needed was one stop or one play. We just never really had it the ENTIRE game. How often can we have that kinda game? I'm glad we're getting these games out of the way earlier in the year rather than down the stretch.
I agree on everything in the article, just not about the one part I emphasized. A few weeks ago I made my season predictions and had this as a 9-7 team. I just want the coaches and the players to prepare every week like we are playing a playoff game. It is upsetting as a fan to hear that a rookie head coach, coming off a loss and facing a divisional opponent, took this game lightly and underestimated them. I'll give him and the rest of the team the benefit of the doubt, though, that this will be the last time that happens.
OMG, we should sign you up as the new D-coordinator, because you obviously know more than Rex Ryan. So i suppose when a building collapses your gonna explain why it did to the architect?
Having survived the Herman Edwards era, my confidence will never be restored by a speech...only by wins. Put up or shut up Rex. I want members of this defense to be arrested for assault and battery after the Buffalo game.
This could get sketchy. if he wants his practices to be more contact oriented it raises the possibility of injuries and fatigue. I understand that every team faces these dilemmas butevery team also suffers injuries. We hardly have the depth, so this could get ugly if he runs them ragged.
