Jets Post-Game Quotes & Videos
Head Coach Adam Gase
Opening Statement…
Alright, injuries: Chuma (Edoga) went out with a calf; Alex (Lewis) went out with a shoulder; Frankie (Luvu) went out with a groin. We didn’t take advantage of anything at the beginning of the game. We had some opportunities for some big plays to kind of get everyone jump started. We didn’t get that done. We had some early struggles on defense, (but we) did a great job in the second half. We just couldn’t get anything going on offense. Too many penalties in the first half really hurt us. We can’t have six penalties like that in the first half and then one in the second, that definitely has to get cleaned up. We have a lot of things to fix on offense. We just have to make the plays when they are there to be made. We have to protect the quarterback better. We can’t let Joe (Flacco) just be getting teed off on that early in the game.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Adam, you have the same thing every week about fixing things. It’s not getting fixed. What makes you believe that you can still fix this?
It’s different things. Keep running when we have a guy beat. It’s making sure that when we pick up a blitz, we physically get the guy removed from the hole to where the quarterback doesn’t have a guy in his lap. This game was way less mental issues – it was physical. They took advantage of a few things early in the game. They did a good job on some of their pick stunts. Coming out in those three interior guys set some things up for those guys in the pass rush. It was tough for our o-line to pick up. We kind of got that settled down and then losing those two guys, and it just kind of started up again.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: What was your reaction to Gregg Williams’ lack of accountability on Friday? Did you have a word with him about that?
We talked about it. I think he was trying to talk about complimentary football, all three phases playing together.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: On the CBS telecast, they were quoting you from the production meeting last night. They quoted you as saying that, “Everyone needs to shut up and play.” That sounds like a fairly stern rebuke of your defensive coordinator.
I wasn’t happy about it, but we talked about it. Right now, I feel that our players are doing such a good job as far as trying to get things righted. Everything that we say matters. He understood that we have to set the right example.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: When Gregg comes out and says something like that, it paints the picture that there is disconnect on the coaching staff in an offense vs defense kind of thing. Is that…
I disagree with that. I know what you’re saying, but Gregg and I talk so much. We talk through a lot of thing – not just football. We talk through things. The majority of the time, we’re thinking exactly the same thing. We have discussions if we’re not. We’re just trying to get guys to focus on doing things better. As coaches, we have to do the same thing.
Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: When you guys are in a state like this where nothing positive is happening for you, can you see a way out of this? Is there any kind of vision of view you have where you can get out of this?
We have to go back to work. We have to get these young guys playing as well as we can get them playing. The guys that are healthy, we have to get our explosive players, we have to get those types of plays out of them on offense. The guys on defense, whoever is out there, we just have to play the best technique possible. Execute the calls. I felt like there was a lot of good things the defense did today. Offensively, we’d have three good plays and then it would be two negative plays in a row, which puts us in such a bad position.
Laura Albanese, Newsday: Do you consider the issue with Gregg resolved, or is this going to be an ongoing conversation?
I felt like we were good after we talked.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: The cameras caught you in a pregame conversation with Gregg that seemed somewhat animated. Did you guys have angry words before the game?
No. We were talking about something else. Something that was brought to us by the officials that I wasn’t real happy about learning an hour-and-a-half before the game.
(follow-up) Rich Cimini, ESPN: What was it?
They didn’t like the way, they were talking about how Connor (McGovern) holds the ball.
Otis Livingston, WCBS: During the broadcast, they showed a lot of your stats – losses by 20 points, the double-digit losses, the defense, the rankings, and all that stuff. How is it that every department seems to be struggling and not one is just thriving?
We just never put anything together consistently. We haven’t done anything well this year at all. We just hurt ourselves so much, Last year, we trended in the right direction. We improved. I know we had a big changeover in personnel halfway through the year, but I felt like we started trending in the right direction. This year, we have to figure out a way to improve really quickly from top to bottom. From coaches to players, it doesn’t matter. It’s everybody. We have to get things better.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: When you’re having wholesale challenges on offensive like you guys are and – you just said it everything is going wrong – does something need to change? Is there something specific you can pinpoint? I think you guys have six touchdowns in six games this year.
No. You look at the red zone and I know we’ve talked about that before. We’ve had two drives completely stall out because of third-and-one and fourth-and-one. We have to finish our drives in the endzone and the way to do that is we make sure we block the right guys and then we get movement off the ball.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: What was the thought process on the rotation of the running backs? You said earlier in the week that you wanted to get (La’Mical) Perine a bigger carry and I think Frank (Gore) came out with more carries by a few.
Yeah. That was the plan going in. I was just watching those guys, the body language. I know after Perine dropped that one ball, I was trying to make sure he was good confidence-wise. I didn’t want him to go in the wrong direction and trying to get him back in there. I was trying to get Ty (Johnson) involved. We had some personnel groupings that were tough to get to because of the way the game was going. We finally got him a couple of carries and he popped one. I was just looking for something where we’d have a hole and we’d hit it. I know there are a couple of opportunities that Perine will probably go back and look at and wish he could have back. We just have to keep getting him more and more carries. Next game, hopefully we can get the carries the way we want them.
Otis Livingston, WCBS-TV: Its hard to tell from afar, but it looks like on the sideline the team is lifeless. Where does that spark come from? Does it need to come from the coaches? One player stepping up? A players-only meeting? What are you expecting to get this turned around?
I didn’t think it was lifeless. Offensively, we were frustrated. We were frustrated. There were a lot of points where guys were encouraging each other and cheering each other on. I thought the defense definitely had good energy, trying to create turnovers. You’re trying to make that play to swing the game in a positive direction. We got a little frustrated on offense because we couldn’t get that done.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: You keep having these offensive issues as far as you mentioned, maybe players are maybe making mental miscues, there are physical issues. When it’s happening weekly, at one point does it become the scheme and not necessarily the players, where the scheme needs to be adjusted?
We’re evaluating it all the time. We’re trying to change things that fit to our guys and adjust to where we need to adjust, whether it’s protection, run game. We had to do some different stuff this game because of what they were playing, both protection-wise and in the run game.
Brian Costello, New York Post: Are you concerned at all that with the results not changing every week, Christopher (Johnson) might want to make a change?
No. I’m not even thinking about it. I have to focus on making sure our guys are ready to go when we get back in the building on Monday and Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then getting ready for this next game.
Al Iannazzone, New York Newsday: Do you worry about your team’s mental state? More than that, with the losing and everything, have they just tuned you guys out?
In this locker room, these are good guys that work extremely hard. Its frustrating. When you talk to them on Monday, you can tell. These guys were hurting. They try to do the right thing. They come in. They work. They do a great job of having high energy at practice, trying to get better. I feel like the players are really the ones trying to find a way to flip this thing. They are taking the lead on this. We just have to keep grinding and trying to find ways to fix those early mistakes that help flip the game.
Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Is it even more concerning when you see that progress at practice and you see those players putting forth that effort, but then you guys go out today and lose 24-0?
It sucks. Everybody is just trying to do everything they can to win a game. We just haven’t been able to do it.
Joe Flacco
Video: Here
Brian Costello, New York Post: Joe, it looked like the first series you wanted to take some shots and be aggressive going down the field. Why didn’t that work there?
We knew what they do is play people tight. They play people man-to-man and people have been kind of playing us that way anyways so we figured they would be doing that to us. We probably had a chance there to kind of get off to a good start and just weren’t able to make it happen and I think from then on out when they were playing some single-high, they were definitely doing some things to take that away and then they started all-out blitzing us, playing Cover 0, making it tough to kind of hold onto the ball long enough to get those balls out.
Otis Livingston, WCBS: I think you guys were 0-for-11 or 0-for-12 on third-down conversions before you got your first one. Why did you guys not have more success? Just execution? Or was it what they were doing to you guys defensively?
I think the game was 0-for-20-something before the last couple drives there. Hey, man, it was a tough game and the only thing you can do in these situations is just hold your head up high and keep on fighting and fighting and fighting. It was ugly. We didn’t play well and they came after us and we just weren’t able to get a lot going.
Brian Costello, New York Post: How do you feel like you played personally, Joe?
I don’t really look at that until I go back at the film. I don’t feel good right now because we didn’t win the football game and we didn’t play well enough. But I’m happy about how the guys that were in there at the end of the game fought and kept going. The defensive kind of stepped up in the second half there and played a good game. I definitely made some mistakes and have got to clean some things up and keep on going but we’re playing in some really tough conditions right now and we’ve just got to keep getting better.
Rich Cimini, ESPN: At 0-6, coming off a shutout loss, where does the hope come from?
Well, hey, you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what drives you and why you do this. Do you love this game? That’s what it really all comes down to. And then you’ve just got to execute and play better. Listen, we can play as hard as we want and be as tough as we want and have the right guys, but if we don’t play well, we’re not going to get it done. But it still starts with keeping your head held high and sticking together as a unit.
Frank Gore
Video: Here
(as transcribed by MIA)
(If you could just talk about the offensive struggles. I think you guys didn’t get a third down conversion until the ten-minute mark in the fourth quarter.) – “We’ve got to do better. We can’t – if we keep doing that, you know, it’s going to be tough to win a game. We’ve got to play better as a team. We’ve got to find a way to continue drives. We’ve got to find a way to start fast. I know we keep saying that we practice hard every day, we stand up, but we’ve got to a find a way to do it on Sundays, and that’s it.”
(You’ve been around long time obviously. Have you ever been around a team that’s struggled like this offensively? It just doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of hope out there.) – “You know, I’ve been on some teams that we struggled. You know, but nobody not going to feel sorry for us. We’ve got to find a way to, like I said, start fast and convert third down to keep the drives going. If not, we’re going to keep – every game coming in, looking at each other saying, ‘we need to do this better, do that.’ And its tough, man.”
(Look at 0-6, the results have not been close in a lot of games and say you should change the coach, fire the coach. You’ve been around the league a long time. Why is that not the answer?) – “That’s not my call, man. I don’t know. I’m here to try my best when my number gets called to do what’s right for the Jets. Like I said, as a team we’ve got to start fast. When the play out there, we got to make it. Like you said, third down, we can’t wait until (explicit) – (explicit) whatever, fourth quarter you say? Can’t (explicit) wait to the fourth quarter to (explicit) start playing ball, man. You can’t start slow in this league. When you got a chance to make the play, we got to make the play. That goes for me, goes for everybody on the offense. Go for o-line, quarterback, running back, receiver. We all got to make the play when it’s there.”
(How would you assess Jets Head Coach Adam Gase and kind of whether you see him as the guy that can kind of get you guys out of this because it just doesn’t seem like there are a lot of answers right now.) – “He’s been keeping his head up. Coming in, and, you know, we watch film. We see what is out there. We’ve just got to make it as a team, as an offense. We’ve go to make plays when it’s there. When we watch film we see that’s there. We’re just not making plays. In the NFL if got opportunities to make plays to give you chunk – the big plays – it’s going to be tough on the offensive side of the ball. I think as an offense and as a team we’ve just got to look at ourselves and just make it happen, man.”
(Can you feel the frustration level of the guys in the locker room?) – “Come on, man. Nobody wants to lose. You know, like I say, man, we practice hard every day, we stand up. You see us practicing on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Friday. You can’t tell that’s an 0-6 team. Everybody else, nobody put their head down. I just think we’ve got to do it on Sundays. We’ve got to start fast as an offense. We been three-and-out, three-and-out. We watch film and it’s always, oh, we should have made this, we should’ve made that,’ instead of just making it. In this game nobody – in the NFL, nobody going to feel sorry for what team you are. I don’t care what’s going on. Nobody feels sorry for you. So we got to dig deep, and when our number get called and the play’s there, we got to make it. That’s it.”
(When Defensive Coordinator Gregg Williams comes out like he did on Friday and makes those comments, is that a sign of division in the team?) – “I don’t know what he said. I don’t read the papers. You know, I just worry about – try to worry about what I got to do for my team to be successful. I don’t get into no papers and what coaches – I don’t know what he said. I really don’t. I don’t know what he said because I don’t read the newspaper.”
(Obviously you guys are frustrated. How much do you worry about that frustration in the locker room kind of leading to you guys losing confidence or anything like that?) – “We get a bunch of great guys here. Like I said, you see it in practice. When we come to practice every day, everybody up. Nobody tuck their tail, hold their heads down. That’s a good thing. I just think we watch film and I’m tired of us being like, ‘ah, we should’ve made this,’ instead of just making it. It’s there. I’m being real. Like I’m not trying to take off our head coach, because it’s out there. When you watch film – we’ve just got to make the plays. We’ve got to make the right reads. When our o-line is getting us a hole, we got to make the catch. That’s how you win. Continue to have drives going to get a chance to get in the red zone, to get a chance to score touchdowns. When you start out, what, three-and -out, something like that; it’s going to be tough. You know, I’m being real. It’s tough. I’m sick of it. I’m tired of us going to film like, ‘ah, we should have had this.’ Now we’ve got to make it.”
(Did you think there were any repercussions, like lingering effects from the Le’Veon Bell news from the other day that was hanging around a little bit?) – “I don’t think so. You know, I think everybody on the team believes in – the coaches and GM made a decision. I think everybody on the team – offense, defense – they believe in me. They believe in La’Mical Perine. So I don’t think it was a linger. They know I’ve been having success in this league for a long time. They’ve seen me in practice. They saw me in training camp. They saw that I can play. They see (La’Mical) Perine taking steps as a rookie. So I don’t think that was a linger.”
(You said watching the film. It sounds like you think that you’re one play away from finishing a drive, putting points on the board.) – “I’m not just saying just one play. It’s just football. When the play there you got to make it. I’m not saying just one play.”
(I just want to know, do you feel that this team has the talent to make those plays?) – “Yeah, I think we’re here. That’s why they’re here. That’s why we’re here – for a reason. You don’t get to the NFL if you don’t have talent. We’ve got to just make the play when it’s there. It’s out there. I’m not lying. I’m not taking up for my head coach. It’s out there. We’re just not making them.”
Marcus Maye
Video: Here
(as transcribed by MIA)
(What’s the frustration level like inside your locker room right now?) – “I mean, it’s there. Obviously, we didn’t get the job done this week again. We just got to continue to improve every day that we step out. Just got to find a way to get a win on Sundays.”
(When Defensive Coordinator Greg Williams makes comments like he did on Friday, is that a sign that maybe the team is fracturing?) – “What comments did he… I didn’t…”
(Well, it became quite a headline where he basically said the defense hasn’t been playing great, but he also suggested that it’s not all the defense’s fault. It was almost like a shot at the offense and Head Coach Adam Gase a little bit.) – “Um.”
(Head Coach Adam Gase didn’t seem too happy when we spoke to him a short time ago.) – “This is my first time hearing about it. It’s a team game. It’s three sides of the ball, offense, defense, and special teams, and we all got to find a way to win. It’s not just on one side of the ball or anything like that. It’s a team effort, it’s a collective effort from everybody in this building.”
(How did you feel like you played defensively today? Obviously, some early struggles, but then it seemed like you guys pedaled in after that.) – “Yeah, those early struggles put us in a hole. We fought back the rest of the game, but we can’t put ourselves in that hole in the beginning of the game, and especially down 21 points that fast, it’s tough to fight back, even though we played well once we settled in.”
(Walk us through your interception. It was pretty extraordinary. It’s going to make a lot of highlight film shows.) – “No, I just read the route. Just doing what I’m coached. Just playing ball, see the ball in the air, go get it. They tried to set that move up a couple times earlier in the game. I was just waiting on it, being patient, and ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) finally threw it and I was there ready for it.”
(It looked like you were playing more deep safety, the role we’ve seen you play for most of your career. Were you comfortable with moving back there?) – “Yeah. I mean, you can put me anywhere. Like I always say, line up and feel like I can get the job done pretty much anywhere. But just making the switch back there back at free, just making sure things are going on and making sure everybody is lined up and making sure the ball doesn’t go over our head.”
(What gives you hope and belief that you guys can still fix this and turn it around even at 0-6?) – “It’s a new day, new week. I don’t think anybody has the mindset of giving up. I know I definitely don’t. Just got to try to improve from this week. I know that sounds like a broken record almost, but each week in the NFL is a new week, it’s a clean slate. We just got to find a way to get it done.”