Jets Post-Game Quotes & Videos

Head Coach Adam Gase

Opening Statement…
Just an injury update: (Blake) Cashman went out with a groin; Le’Veon (Bell) came out in the second half with a hamstring. That was really the two big ones we had in this game. It was about as bad of a start offensively as we could have had. We didn’t do anything when the defense did a good job getting a turnover. Complimentary football was non-existent throughout most of the game. We just really did not play well. The disappointing aspect is just watching the guys work all week and the excitement level coming into this game. We have a lot to work on and a lot of things to get fixed.

Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Can you go into detail on Sam’s (Darnold) Day? It seemed like he struggled for quite a bit.
I have to watch the film. There were a couple of things – especially early in the game – we were just off with some of the details of what we were calling and what we were doing. We didn’t do a couple of things that looked really poorly for him. He missed some throws that we’ve seen him make and he made later in the game. I really have to go look at this. The first half felt like, three-and-out, three-and-out. We were just trying to get a first down and get something going. I have to go back and look at this.

Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Were you seeing fundamentals break? The interception looked like he threw off his back foot.
That one, he’s going to see that one. Anytime you’re moving to the left and you throw to the middle of the field, that’s not ideal. You don’t want to do that.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: You were hurt pretty badly by a lot of penalties. What do you attribute that to and how debilitating was that for you guys?
We have to go back, right now, it’s a penalty on the books. We have to go back. We either have to look at it and we say, ‘That’s a call that had to be made and we need to figure out what we need to fix in that area.’ Sometimes, you have penalties called and you might disagree with what the official threw. I have to go back and watch this. It seems like a lot of things that occurred in this game were preventable for us, for sure.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: Specifically, on the play right out of the TV timeout with the delay of game, what happened there?
We had a really bad miscommunication in the huddle. We just screwed up the formation. Everything got messed up. I didn’t dig in too deep as far as who screwed up because we had to move onto the next series, but we can’t have that happen.

Rich Cimini, ESPN: Did Buffalo throw anything at you early that maybe surprised you?
Nope.

Rich Cimini, ESPN: It just seemed like everything was out-of-sync…
We did not, when we had opportunities to make plays, we didn’t make them. I thought there were some things that, I felt like the line gave us enough time. We were not good in the passing game today, especially early. I felt like we did some good stuff later. The touchdown was something that I was excited about. Sam saw the pressure and he checked the play. We executed. That’s what you want to have happen on those types of pressures. For that to happen in our first game when last year, we just got lit up by all of these teams bringing the house against us and we’d get two or three yards. To hit a big one like that on a quick throw, that was a good step for us. We didn’t do nearly enough to give ourselves a chance against this defense.

Connor Hughes, The Athletic: It seemed like a lot of the things that you struggled with today were the same things you struggled with last season. Negative first and second-down plays. Long third-down plays, not getting any kind of rhythm.
To me, it felt completely different. This year, it was, either we had a guy open and we missed him. We had a guy open and we dropped it. We had a couple of miscues in the run game, but I felt like calling this game compared to last year was night and day. Just with the communication with the players. Those guys understanding why things weren’t going right and then trying to fix it. It’s just completely different to me. We didn’t play well. We did not do a good job as an offense.

Brian Costello, The Athletic: The drive before halftime – the field goal drive – you took a timeout with like :47 seconds left. There was a throw to the middle of the field to (Jamison) Crowder right before the field goal. What was going on there in terms of time management?
That was one of those ones where I called something (and) really wasn’t thinking the ball would go there. It’s hard to control all aspects of it.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: I know this is not of relevance to the game, but what the players did prior to the game with the anthem inside, can you talk a little bit about that process and the discussion there?
We had a couple of meetings leading up to the game to put the options out there. Whether it was me meeting with the captains, leadership council (and) those guys did a great job of talking with most of the guys on the team. The decision was made as a group that we would be together on this and stay in the locker room.

Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Is there anything that you can immediately take away from this game? Any positives?
I was really happy with the two-minute drive at the end of the half. I loved the way that our guys at halftime were phenomenal, especially my interaction with the defense at halftime. It’s quick, because it’s figuring out what’s going on over there and then talking to them before we go out on the field. Offensively, the suggestions of, “Hey, let’s get on the ball. Let’s try go to go this, this, and this.” Really good suggestions from our offensive line. The discussion in there of making every possession count. That was a different feel for me with that group. These guys have a plan themselves going out there before we even said anything. It was good to see how all of those guys were working together. There is so much for us to clean up. It was a rough game. We didn’t play well enough. We have to get a lot of things fixed in a short period of time.

Brian Costello, New York Post: Do you have any idea on how serious Le’Veon’s hamstring is?
I don’t. I am mad at myself that I let him to back in there in the second half. That play looked bad. I was watching him, and I thought it was going to be a touchdown. He got grabbed and the way he planted and torqued, it looked really bad. I saw him grab his hamstring and he wouldn’t come out. When we came in at halftime, I let him go back in there. I was worried about it. Eventually, I was like, ‘I can’t put you in there. We can’t take a chance of getting more hurt than you already are.’

Brian Costello, New York Post: What went into the decision to bench (Pierre) Desir?
I’ll get with those guys. It’s a situation where, when we’re in the game, our position coaches have a job to do. They make those decisions. When we come back tomorrow, we’ll go back through and talk through what we will do next week.

Quarterback Sam Darnold

Please click here for link to the video

Brian Costello, New York Post: It just looked like you guys couldn’t get anything going there early in the game. What were you seeing out there, especially in the first half?
First off, we didn’t execute the way that we wanted to, especially in the first half. I put that on my shoulders. I missed way too many throws today. We had opportunities and I just missed guys. We’ve got to look at the tape and see what happened, but I just flat-out missed guys and that’s on me. And so I’ve got to be better and we’ve got to execute better. It’s as simple as that. Now we do have to go into the meetings tomorrow, kind of understand how we need to fix those things and make sure that—because they’re fixable, it’s the first game of the season—and so we’ve just got to go in with our heads up and be ready to learn from our mistakes and leave it at that.

Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Can you take us through both the interception that you threw and then also the sack that you took when you were running toward the sidelines and didn’t throw it out of bounds?
So, the interception was just a bad play to try to fit a ball in there that I shouldn’t have. And then the sack that I took was another, kind of what I said before, it’s a bad play, it’s inexcusable, there are no excuses for it. I’ve just got to be better. I was kind of waiting and I obviously waited too long for someone to get open and it was just a bad decision.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: You were hurt by penalties quite a bit today. Can you speak to that, particularly the penalty you guys took for the delay (of game), what happened there, right out of the TV timeout?
We try to limit penalties as much as we can. Obviously, there were too many today. And then the delay of game, I put that on my shoulders. We didn’t break the huddle fast enough and we weren’t ready and that’s on me.

Charles McDonald, New York Daily News: Was there anything that Buffalo did today that was confusing schematically or that you haven’t seen during practice at all?
They always try to bring different looks, but Buffalo, their defense is going to do what they do. We were ready for it, we just didn’t execute.

Ralph Vacchiano, SNY: Sam, we know that obviously there were a lot of receivers that were out, you didn’t have your full cast there. How much of this was timing that maybe should have been a little expected?
No, I don’t think that’s an excuse that we’ll make. I think, for us, we were practicing well all week and, again, we just came out here on gameday and didn’t execute the way we did in practice. I think for us, it’s about taking what we do in practice and making sure that translates to the game.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: As a captain, can you speak to the decision and what you guys ended up doing for the anthem today and how that came about, where it was discussed. Was that at all in concert with the Bills as well, who did the same thing?
No, we didn’t talk to Buffalo about it at all. It was just a coincidence that both teams did that. I think for us it was just about making a statement and that was really our thought process through that.

Mark Cannizzaro, New York Post: When did that come about? Was that during the week?
Yeah, it was kind of in the middle of the week. I think Thursday morning.

Brian Costello, New York Post: On the drive right before half that ended up with the field goal, right before the kick, you threw a completion to (Jamison) Crowder in the middle of the field with the clock running. Were you supposed to go there? Were you supposed to go somewhere else? What happened there, because it seemed like you guys had a chance to maybe score a touchdown there and had to settle for a field goal?
Yeah, they were bringing pressure so I had to get the ball out. Hindsight, if we look at the tape we might say that we want to do something different, but that’s what I thought in the moment, so I did it, but I knew we’d have to slow kill it and execute the field goal. So, that was kind of my thought process in the moment.

Connor Hughes, The Athletic: Is this one demoralizing at all in that you guys talked all offseason about how it’s going to be a different year, you’re ready for the offense, you’re going into year three, second with (Coach) Gase, and then to kind of come out on the field here and have a lot of problems that seemed to plague you today be the same ones that plagued you most of last year?
I think for us, we’re all competitors. Losing sucks no matter who it is. Obviously, it’s Week One. There were some details, guys, that we’ve got to figure out and we’re going to figure out. But it’s Week One and we’ve just got to figure out what we did wrong and correct those mistakes and not let them happen again.

Safety Marcus Maye

Please click here for link to the video

On what the Bills were doing so effectively in the first half…
Just extending plays, really. They weren’t doing anything schematically. (QB Josh Allen) was extending plays with his legs and getting guys open with his feet. The penalties hurt us on our end, but other than that, that was really it. We shot ourselves in the foot in the first half.

On the team’s decision to stay in the locker room for the National Anthem…
We just decided as a unit that we were going to hold out and stay inside during the National Anthem. We all decided that was something big for us to do. We did it as a group, as a team. Obviously, people had different perspectives on being out there on the sidelines, so we made an emphasis on just staying inside and keeping everybody together inside.

On the biggest issue on defense…
Containing the quarterback. Other than that, that was really it. The (pass interference penalties) in the first half hurt us and letting (Allen) extend plays. Other than that, in the second half we got off the field like we needed to once we settled in. It wasn’t really anything that they necessarily did, it was all us I feel like.

On slowing down the momentum Allen built in the first half…
You have to come out hot. You have to come out fast. You can’t wait until things get tough to get going. From the first play you have to come out. You know he’s going to run. You know he’s going to extend plays. You know he’s not going to stay in the pocket. So, we just have to execute and be disciplined in our rush lanes. When the ball is in the air, just be composed and be smart.

On if the loss is deflating…
It’s tough. Obviously, nobody wants to lose. It’s Week One. It was a long offseason, so we were all looking forward to coming in and getting the win. Obviously, we didn’t get that so we have to get back to the drawing board for next week and look forward to next week.

Wide Receiver Jamison Crowder

Please click here for link to the video

On what happened in the first half…
We had to get into that rhythm. I feel like guys were trying to press to hard and we just couldn’t get into that rhythm. We have to change that going forward. We have to come out early and bring the energy and get some plays going, stay ahead of the sticks and get first downs.

On how different this game was without fans in the stadium and if it impacted their play…
It was obviously different. Like I said, I just think we have to make plays earlier out of the gate. Once we can do that, then we’ll be able to get that juice whether there are fans or not. We’ll just have that juice and have that momentum and rhythm going as a unit. It definitely was different, but we just have to make plays earlier and that will help us get that juice and get that rhythm.

On the touchdown…
That was a huge play. We have to have plays like that early. I had a huge drop on one of those drives that definitely hurt us, but you keep playing. We got the right look that we wanted from Buffalo. We made the adjustment and I was able to break a couple of tackles. The guys on the perimeter did a good job of blocking their guys and I was able to take it to the house.

On what the team needs to improve on…
We just have to play better complimentary football and clean up the penalties. Those are things that we can control. We control the jumping offsides, the holdings, the false starts, whatever they may be. We have to eliminate those. We have to go back and make sure we execute. Make sure I catch the football. I’m not concerned with that. I know I’m going to make plays. That’s one of the things that I feel like I need to clean up. We just have to lock in and play sound fundamental football.