Transcript: The Coordinators Speak 11.12
The Coordinators take their chance to talk to the media …
Defensive Coordinator Mike Pettine, 11.12
On how tough it is to stop Maurice Jones-Drew…
He’s every bit as advertised. He’s a special back. We faced him a year ago in Baltimore and he was as much as we stressed all week. It’s easy to say, that you make sure you set the edges on him and he’s never down and make sure the second and third guy in never relax around the pile. He still managed to really get some runs on us. That was also coming off his knee (injury). We weren’t even sure he was going to play. It really showed Rex (Ryan) and I how tough he is. Here it was, there season was all but over, it was there last game and he hurt his knee. A lot of guys would have packed it in for the year. Sure enough, he came out there and was full go. It was impressive.
On how tough it is for a tall player to stop a shorter player like Jones-Drew…
It’s different. We’re fortunate to have a guy like Danny Woodhead in practice that can simulate that. He’s a versatile enough athlete that he can be the Wes Welker or (Julian) Edelman type in Week Two and then change hats and give us a legit look at tailback, at least from a height standpoint. Obviously, Jones-Drew is much more powerful, lower body wise. You’ve got to bend. It is different for those (taller) guys. It’s not like they’re taking on the taller backs like Chris Johnson or Larry Johnson that’s up over 6 feet. It’s something that we’re going to have to deal with.
On if they will manage Lito Sheppard’s return differently than last time…
I think it was one of those things where we maybe made a mistake (and) overestimated his readiness. We have a plan as far as play counts and what he’s in on and what he isn’t. If there are issues in-game, we can very easily go to plans B or C.
On if Dwight Lowery took advantage of his time playing in place of Sheppard…
He did, as I’ve stated in here before. I think that Dwight’s proven himself to a be a starting NFL corner. He works at it and I think that’s to his credit. He doesn’t just show up. He puts the time in. He prepares on and off the field. He’s very serious about his job and does a nice job in gathering the information that he needs. He puts out as hard as any other guy in practice. He’s full speed and that’s a credit to him.
On if there is any replacement for the experience that Lowery got starting in NFL games…
There isn’t. Game experience, you’re right, there’s no substitution for it. He wasn’t just out there to be our 11th guy out there because he needed to be out there. He competed. He made plays.
On if the defense’s communication has improved…
I think our communication has been good as a group, to credit Doug Plank, Jim O’Neil, and Dennis Thurman. I don’t think there’s a week where I can say the back end came up short this week in preparation. This is a group that usually by the time we get to game day, they have the other team’s routes dialed in pretty well as far as what they’re going to get out of certain personnel groups, certain formations and certain down and distance situations. I don’t think this week is any different.
On if teams have learned how to adjust to their “chaotic” defense…
Our plans haven’t changed. We had some games where we didn’t get teams in the situations where we felt we could be a little more chaotic. When we get to third-and-long, when the threat of the run is gone and we can be a little less gap sound and more in the overloads and some of that stuff that involves the chaos. In Baltimore, as with here, we found that we tend to get more max-protect than most, which I think is one of the reasons why we’ve been so good defending the pass because when you only have two or three (receivers) out on the route, it’s a lot easier to defend than four or five.
On how he spent the bye week…
I got away from it. I was down in Maryland and got to spend some time with the family. I played Mr. Mom for a couple of days, so I was with my kids. It was good. It was good to get away. It gave me an opportunity to reflect back. We did a substantial self scout during that off week. We looked at the offense and the offense looked at us. There were some really good things that came out of that meeting that I think myself, Bob Sutton and Dennis Thurman especially gave some thought to as far as things we could do different in the second half to break some of our tendencies. I think it came at a perfect time for us. We looked back and we were all a little upset that for as well as we played, that we’re sitting here at 4-4, that we couldn’t put it together in all three phases every week and have that result and feel that we should be 5-3, at the worst, 6-2 or better. To be at 4-4 is a tough feeling. I think that’s helped our guys realize that we’re capable of getting on a run here. Those losses were all close and we can compete with anyone in this league.
On if they have been stressing the importance of scoring points on defense…
It’s something we’re always looking for, but you run the risk of guys, and this has been a topic and I know Kerry (Rhodes)’s talked about it, guys coming out of structure to make a play. We don’t have a guy try to do somebody else’s job or roll the dice and come out of a coverage or come out of a rush lane just for the sake of making a play. We like to think that when all of our guys do their jobs that the ball will find us. When you study what Ed Reed’s done in Baltimore, because I know some of the comparisons of who’d be the Ed Reed up here, and Ed is, to me, a Hall of Fame safety and does a phenomenal job. There are some plays that Ed makes, but at the same time, he’s given some up as well. Sometimes you’re not willing to make that trade-off. I think Kerry and Jim (Leonhard) have done a nice job back there. We haven’t had too many, knock on wood, deep balls and runs breaking free. I’m comfortable where we are. I know the sack thing is an issue and the interception thing has been an issue. We dropped some, that’s been the more disappointing thing. I think as we get more chemistry as a unit and the only way we get that is to play. That’s not just something that happens. Guys understand where I’m going to be, where my teammate’s going to be in certain calls. I think those things will come over time.
New York Jets Offensive Coordinator Brian Schottenheimer, 11.12
On Jacksonville moving from a 3-4 to 4-3 defense…
They played the whole game in 4-3. They brought (defensive coordinator) Mel Tucker in from Cleveland, he had that 3-4 background from the Patriots (vs. Kansas City), as their coordinator. They played some 3-4 in the preseason. They played some 4-3 in the preseason. They had some injures. They lost Reggie Hayword and a couple of guys. I guess they made the decision to go exclusively to a 3-4 for the most part of the season. They got a couple of young defensive ends they like, (Quentin) Groves from Auburn, (Derrick) Harvey from Florida and then out of nowhere in the Kansas City game they totally changed and played all four (defensive lineman) down. I’m sure we’ll see both, but I think they’re trying to get back to the stuff they’ve traditionally built their house on, which is the four down. Henderson is playing the three technique and fast, run and hit linebackers.
On the Jacksonville defense…
There is a kid (Terrance) Knighton, the rookie that they have, that has been playing the nose. Now on the four down, Henderson is playing the three and he is still playing the nose tackle. I think they definitely caught Kansas City off guard. That would catch anybody off guard. Usually you would expect it after a bye week or something, but during the course of the season the change is pretty dramatic. We have to prepare for both. I think there is a good chance we’ll see both. You have to go back and look at some things from years previous and the preseason where they played more four down. Other than Kansas City, there (are) no snaps of (them in the) four down, (only) in the 3-4. Some stuff hasn’t changed much, on third downs (they are a) very aggressive unit, the way they pressure. They come a lot. They hadn’t had a lot of sacks going into the Kansas City game they only had five. They were the worst in the League and then they got three in this game against Kansas City. They have to feel good about that. Secondary, they have a very good corner in (Rashean) Mathis, a really good player. Then the safety Reggie Nelson is a very good player. Their numbers don’t jump off the page but when you watch them play you can tell it’s a Jack Del Rio coached defense.
On Brad Smith playing…
It seems like it’s been a revolving door (at the wide receiver position) here for a while. It’s important in the passing game. Brad (Smith) helps in a lot of ways, because he wears a lot of hats and can do a lot of things. The wrinkles that you can run with some of your gadgets and gimmicks, the Seminole package and all that stuff comes back with him being there. For a guy to work the underneath and intermediate zones with his hands. He has a good feel for what the quarterbacks are thinking from playing that position. It is welcoming to have him back. He can help us.
On the self-scouting process…
I wouldn’t say things surprised us. The running game is where we want it to be. It started a little bit slow. We talked about that in here before. The running game is where we want it to be. We run the ball well, we run the ball a lot. The line is playing really well right now. The guy that doesn’t get enough credit for what he is doing in the running game is Ben Hartsock. We put him in a lot of tough positions and he has to battle defensive ends on a day-in and day-out basis. He’s a big part of why we have the amount of yards we have. The passing game, we’ve hit some big plays and we’ve missed some things. Some of it just comes down to getting Mark (Sanchez) familiar with all the new targets. Some have been just poor throws. The passing game is something that we look at and something that we need to continue to improve. Getting guys back and getting Mark comfortable and making positive plays and hitting some completions, taking the timely shots when they’re there, that is what we are trying to do. When you go back to the Miami game, one of the biggest plays we had was just a scramble by Mark. He hit JCo (Jerricho Cotchery) on the shallow crossing route and he kind of spun out of it. I don’t know how many yards he made, but it was a big play. You don’t always have to throw the ball 60 yards in the air to have big plays. We have enough talented guys to throw completions (to) underneath receivers and have them make yards after the catch.
On Jacksonville’s pass defense…
The big thing that you see when you look at them is they play a lot of what you call free access their off coverage. They base out of the cover-four. They’ll disguise everything. They do a really good job of disguising all the coverages they play. There are a lot of completions on the outside that they give up. You go back and you look at it and they have given up some big plays that traditionally, having played them a couple of years ago, you haven’t seen from these guys. There was a play late in the game against Kansas City they got a 15 or 16 point lead and Chris Chambers just gets in behind them. It’s third-and-19 and they throw for a 60-yard touchdown. It’s one of those things that as a coach you pull your hair out. They have given up some big plays and obviously those big plays are going to affect your numbers. They played without (Rashean) Mathis for one game. (Reggie) Nelson showed you what a great athlete he is. They took him out of the middle of the field against Tennessee and he played corner. That doesn’t happen in this league where you can take a guy that plays safety and play him at the corner on the outside. This is a good defense that we’re getting ready to play and we realize that. They are coming in here with a lot of confidence with the way they played against Kansas City.
On where Sanchez is with his reads…
He’s getting better. There are probably sometimes where he comes off (his first read) too fast and then there are other times where he clearly stays on a guy too long. We review the reads everyday. He probably gets tired of doing it. We try to make him do it fast. He has a really good feel for the reads. The more he says it, the more he reps them the better he’ll get. What he is trying to get a better grasp of in this league is that guys are open when they have that much (a couple of inches) separation when in college football and other levels of football, you expect a guy to be wide open. You don’t get that in this league. He’s clearly got the arm talent to make the throws in tight coverage. There are times where he’ll either stay on a guy too long or come off a guy because he is not sure if he is open.
On going through reads quickly…
We always ask the quarterback to think fast and talk fast. If I ask him to give me the read on “scat right, F-Woody” it’s not ‘well ok, I’m going to go this to that to this.’ It’s pure-progression boom-boom-boom. He has to make those decisions in a fast time. Those guys in the passing games have to be talking fast. Half the time they can’t understand a word I’m saying because I talk fast. He’s pretty good now, he can translate things. He used to say, ‘Hey Kellen, what did he say (laughing)?’ Now he knows what I’m saying.
On what kind of deep ball thrower Sanchez is…
I think he is a great deep ball thrower. The first play of his career here was a deep ball to (David) Clowney that was really, really good. The one thing that I think he really needs to learn is to take a little bit off of it. Put a little bit more trajectory on it and control the velocity a little bit. He’ll tend to overthrow some guys just because he has a really strong arm. That is one of the things that I really like about him coming out is the fact that he could really throw the deep ball well. Look at what he did two weeks ago against the Dolphins, we ran the nine-route to Braylon (Edwards) down the boundary and he’s actually learning the guy is covering here, I’m going to stick it on the back shoulder or throw it in a window. That’s all part of becoming a really good deep ball thrower because no two deep balls comes out the same way. It all depends on the angle and coverage and things like that.
On how far he is from having the offense he envisions with all of his receivers back…
This business you deal with guy being nicked. I would never stand here and say we haven’t had all of the guys. I think you play with the guys that are out there. Are we excited Jerricho (Cotchery) is back? Absolutely. The things that he presents, the problems that he presents for defenses and (what) he opens up for us is tremendous. Dustin (Keller) showing up in the last game was good to see and David Clowney. It’s hard for a defense when you have so many weapons or guys to throw to for you to take away one guy or key in on one guy. That is one of the positives of having everybody back. Do they want to double Braylon? If they do double Braylon then Jerricho is getting singled or Dustin is getting singled. If they don’t, then that’s a good matchup. It’s good to have it. With the loss of Leon (Washington) getting some of these other guys back helps fill the void.
On how much they miss Leon Washington…
The thing about Leon is I think a lot of things that he does you don’t realize until you go back and look at it. It’s not always on offense, it’s sometimes on special teams. We struggled against Miami on third down. There were some situations where maybe if he is in there something positive happens. You’re going to miss Leon Washington. A lot of guys are trying to step up and fill the role. I still think Shonn Greene is going to be a terrific player. We know what happened last week with the fumble, but we know he’s going to do a really good job and he’s going to grow. You can’t replace Leon, but hopefully enough guys will step up where we won’t miss too much of a beat.
On Derrick Harvey and Quentin Groves…
(They are) really good pass rushers. Harvey’s got the length. He’s really long. He’s bigger than Groves, he’s (281 pounds). Where they have been really good early in the season was almost in the third-down sub stuff where they are walking around. They are a matchup problem. They get caught on a back and it’s a big problem. You have to monitor where they’re going and where they’re moving to hope you can keep a big guy on them. They both present problems. When you look at them in the 3-4 they both look a little bit unusual and uncomfortable dropping into pass coverages. It’s new for them.
New York Jets Special Teams Coordinator Mike Westhoff, 11.12
On if Marques Murrell, Ahmad Carroll and Marquice Cole will play this week…
Yes, probably. It’s one of the toughest things we face. It’s the absolute toughest for me. It’s no one’s fault because you get a couple of injuries, but then you get a guy that’s a little bit nicked up and you go, ‘Well what if? What if we lose him?’ Then all of a sudden, you dress a guy to back-up that maybe hasn’t played as much for me. That can become a factor. We got a little bit stuck in that (vs. Miami) and ended up putting some guys down that we had previously had up. I probably wish we hadn’t done that, but none the less we face it every week. There’s always a degree of it. Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes it’s really hard. When we went in before the Miami game, I thought our strongest team was our kickoff coverage team. We had the second-best starting field position in the NFL. Without that many touchbacks, I thought we were the best team in the league. That’s how I felt. Of course, we get two atomic bombs, but nonetheless we’ll have to make some adjustments there. With the guys we’ve had, they’re good enough to make the plays but just didn’t make them. It was a school-yard play. I’m seeing more and more of that. I study what everybody is doing and I’ve seen more school yard than I’ve ever seen.
On Ted Ginn, Jr.’s second kickoff return for a touchdown…
There were two unblocked guys on the 15-yard line. They’re unblocked. He runs right into them and he stops. We miss the tackle and he bounces around. The other guy falls down and the next thing you know (he scores a touchdown). To answer your question originally, sure we’ll try to make some adjustments. Eventually what I’d love to get to and it’s not easy to get to, is that you have three separate teams that all have starters and you have the same thing on special teams. You have starters. Of course it’s not going to be 11. You know that, but it’s enough key guys. It’s never easy. It’s one of the toughest things I deal with.
On the special teams’ mishaps that contributed to losses against Buffalo and Miami…
The Miami game I agree with you. I felt that, but the Buffalo game, there were a lot of things that went wrong there. There were a lot of people involved there. I don’t like it. It frustrates me. The Miami game, I will take complete responsibility for that. Buffalo, come on we were in line for that one. We all contributed there, which is normally the case. Could we eliminate those two plays? We’d win, so yes it’s very frustrating because we’re usually really good. We’ve had some games this year where we’ve had an integral part in winning. What I’m going to do is I’m going to start totally from scratch. I told the guys in the meeting that I’m going to start totally from scratch. Every single statistic that I’m going to look at, every tackle which I’m going to keep track of, we’re starting a new eight-game season. Everybody starts from scratch.
On why he is starting from scratch…
If we can win eight, we’ll probably be pretty happy. I’m going to say, ‘OK. We are where we are. We can’t change it, but let’s see what we can do for these next eight.’ Let’s find out week by week, every game (and) every play. Keep track of it, which I do anyway. Rather than look at it as a whole of what took place before, eliminate that all and say, ‘OK. We have eight games to play. Let’s see what happens.’ Who makes what tackles? What can we average? What can we do against ourselves, our opponents and the entire league for eight games and find out. We can’t go back. We can’t change it. We’re a sick 4-4, not a happy 4-4. Now when we were 3-0, we felt pretty good. That’s how I’m going to approach it with that in mind and build from there and see if we can’t build it every single day in practice and then in a game. OK. Here we go. Let’s find out. If we do, we win eight and we’ll be pretty happy. That’s how I’m going to do it.
On if he feels special teams is getting a break this Sunday because Maurice Jones-Drew is not the kickoff returner…
I don’t look at it that way. I like him. I thought he did a heck of a job. We face so many good guys every week. Everybody has somebody. No, I don’t look at it that way. Whoever they have, you’re going to have to find a way. Everybody can have a weapon. It’s just a matter of making a play.
On Brian Witherspoon…
He’s a good athlete. He played at Arizona. I like his athleticism. I don’t think he has great speed, but he’s got good quickness. (He has) a good burst. He looks like he leads things well. He’s a solid guy. We do the right things, so we know we can cover him. I have a lot respect for him. Every week you play someone. We don’t have too many guys we go against that aren’t very good. We really don’t.
On if he’s going to move players around on the kick coverage team…
I don’t know. You go to games. You should know that we don’t line up the same way every time. We cover in 5,000 different ways, so no. Let me explain for one more thousandth time. We were the best except for those two. What do you want to change? I want to change those two, not the rest of them. We were doing as good as anybody in the league. We’re good. Now we had some cast of characters who weren’t quite the same, but we’ve got to go back to doing that. The principles of coverage that we have will stay the same. We line up all over the place. We blitz. Sometimes we play base defense. I do that too, but, no, our guys are good. They just go down and make the play.
On Larry Izzo missing a tackle…
He’s got to make it. He was right there. I feel we lined up the same way we covered Oakland. They won’t get very far. It wasn’t just Larry. There were lots of guys involved. He’s just got to make it. We’ve got a good enough group. As I said, for seven games I don’t think there’s anybody better. I like kicking off. I used to love the return. Sometimes there were times where I said, ‘I don’t mind if they get a field goal because they have to kickoff to us.’ I liked getting our kickoff return team on the field these last eight years. Here, I love kicking off with this group. Now, it was dispersed a little bit and I made some errors. I’m not gong to go in looking back. I’m going in looking forward with the guys we have. We have a good enough group. We’ve got to kick it right when we’re trying to squeeze them in a corner and Jay (Feely) hooked it. We don’t want that. Tiger Woods hooks them once in a while. I hope there aren’t too many.
On whether Justin Miller’s speed is the same…
It’s getting him back and finding out. We didn’t necessarily see it either that it wasn’t quite the same. Again, it’s like anything else. You’ve got to get him back into it and get him ingrained. (If) I took you in to my office (and) I showed you our blocking and theirs and say ‘OK. Which team busted it?’ You wouldn’t have any problem telling me and it wouldn’t be the Dolphins. We blocked everybody. One guy slipped off and made the tackle. It’s a big difference. We had a guy that should have stuck with a block (and) Justin Miller (would have had) a gigantic hole. I wish he would have maybe hit it a step quicker but the guy needs to stick with the block for crying out loud. It’s hard to say. We’re going to have to see as time goes how he’s going to be and then make some decisions. It is a little different. That injury was a tough thing and he’s been out of it for a little while. Where exactly is he? We’ll have to figure that out pretty soon. We’ll see. You’re not far off of what you stated. It wasn’t quite the same and we’re hoping that we can pick it back up and find out.
On if this week will be more telling in reference to Miller’s speed…
We’re going to have to wait to see. Where we feel as we get done with this week is where he’s going to be. To be honest with you, we’re not a 100 percent sure right now. We’ll have to find out and it’s not like we don’t have some other characters. We’ve got a few other guys that we think that we can also do this with. We’re going to have to make a decision as to what we think is the best way to go.
On if Dwight Lowery and Brad Smith will be involved in kickoff returns…
Sure. Brad Smith looks like he’ll be back, so we’re kind of anxious to get Brad back. (We) could get Brad involved a little bit. One of the things that Brad Smith has been very successful with is when he gets the ball in his hands. (With) the ball in his hands, he’s a pretty good guy. Maybe I’ll put it in his hands. We’ll see.
On Ahmad Carroll being the kick returner…
I’m don’t feel comfortable with him doing (that). I like his speed, but we’ve tried him numerous times and he takes reps in practice often. I’m not ready to go with that.
On if he doesn’t see what he wants from Miller on Sunday will he go with Lowery or Smith…
We’re not even to Sunday yet. We’ll see. Plus, there are a lot of other factors involved because you’ve got to look at where guys fit into other spots, so there’s a lot of factors involved in that decision.
On if he’s implying that Miller might not return kicks this Sunday…
It’s a possibility that we’re going to try to keep everybody in the mix. I’m not trying to be vague. I’m just being honest with you. I’m looking at three different guys to see what’s going to be the best. Who’s the healthiest? Who looks the most explosive as we finish the week and then we’ll make a decision.
On Smith…
He looked better. I was happy with Brad. We were a little disappointed last week, but now since extra time has gone on, he really appears to be getting back in. He ran all my stuff during the week. Everything that I have, Brad ran. I thought he did well. I was happy to have him back because he gives us an extra weapon on our punt team because of all the fake threats that we have. We want to get everybody back for our eight-game season. That’s how I’m treating it. We’ve got to make it an eight-game season. It starts one at a time. One at a time and it’s Jacksonville. If we can get started in the right thing, there can be a lot of good things ahead of us. We knocked ourselves in the hole, but it’s not where you can’t get out of it. There are teams in the same spot that they might be happier than we are to be there but we’ll just see how it goes for the rest of it. (We’ve) got a long way to go.
