Transcript: Shaun Ellis 12.14
New York Jets DE Shaun Ellis, 12.14
On how the season is going…
I don’t know. I think we’ve been playing pretty solid all year. One or two games in there probably gave us some trouble, but recently we’ve been able to put games together and finish.
On if the defense is prepared to play any offense in the League…
I think so. We held the Saints to 10 points. We were the only team pretty much that gave them trouble all year even though we lost the game. They have one of the best offenses with the Colts in the NFL. To me, I think we held our own against them. Certain things happen during the course of the game which turn the game in a different direction. I think overall, we’re just trying to go out every week and finish out a game and put forth our best effort. We want to go out and have a good performance so we can have something good to watch on tape.
On the team’s confidence level after three straight wins…We’ve been a confident team all year. We fell to some hard times, but to be able to get some wins under our belt is definitely uplifting. We just want to keep our heads to the ground. We’ve been in that situation before and things didn’t work out our way. We had letdown games. For us, it’s just a matter of sticking to the grind and taking it one week at a time. Hopefully, we can get to the playoffs, but we know we have to control our own destiny for it to happen.
On if he watches other teams to see who is competing with them for a playoff spot…
Yes, you do. You look at the scores amongst it all, but we have to do our job. We have to finish it up. We have to win the games and in the end, as long as we take care of that (we will know we did everything we could). Considering everything that happened during the first part of the season, as long as we can finish up strong, it would be a disappointment (to lose), but as long as we know we did what we had to do in the end to try to get into the playoffs and that’s to win the rest of these games. That’s how we’re looking at it. That’s how we’re approaching it. We kind of fell into the trap early on about, ‘We can be two games up.’ We just didn’t get it done, so now we’re in a situation where we have to get it done. We just don’t want to leave room for error when it’s time for teams to start getting into the playoffs. We want to make sure that we did everything that we need to do for it to be a great shot for us to get in.
On what Rex Ryan brings to the defense…
If you look at it, we’re ranked in the League. We’re either one or two, but we’re pretty high. As far as Rex, he’s a defensive-minded guy. He calls plays. We’re very aggressive in the passing and running game. We have an excellent secondary that helps us out as well. The linebacker corps is playing well. Also (the) three up front are playing well. We’re gelling together. Everybody knows their assignments. We just go out and put forth the effort. That’s Rex. He preaches that. He wants a guy that will put forth the effort regardless of who you are. Just get out there and play ball. This carries throughout the team.
On if he’s ever played on a better defense than this…
No, to be able to dominate ball games the way we (have). We held Miami to 100-something yards total offense and Tampa Bay to 100-something again. A couple more teams we kind of chipped them up to. I haven’t been a part of this since I’ve been with the Jets. I’ve been on some good defenses with the Jets, but not anything like this.
On the perseverance of the team after being 4-6…
We just want to get back to the basics, play good defense, stop the run, run the football and complete some passes along the way. I think when we started doing that and we cut down on the turnovers and created turnovers on defense, it was a winning formula for us. It just continued on to this point. Guys just talked amongst themselves. Early on in the season a couple of those plays at the end of the game, during the late stretch, we were giving up especially on the defensive side of the ball. Now, we’re making those plays that is getting us off the field during the late stretch of games. We’re just finishing. We’re doing a great job of finishing. We want to come out, start fast and finish the game. Early on we would have two halves and we’d have a couple of turnovers, but we just want get back to the basics and play great football for a whole 60-minute game. That was kind of our nuisance early on in the year. We kind of figured it out; unfortunately it was kind of too late. Even though we played some teams that are struggling, but those same teams we played earlier beat us too. The mindset was just finishing the game. When you have a team down, just gut punch them and take the will out of them and finish the game. Our whole approach has been about starting fast, finishing and eliminating the mistakes.
2 Responses to Transcript: Shaun Ellis 12.14
-
Johnny Reefer says:
He may not have the most sacks, but nobody has BIGGER sacks then this guy. Every big sack is usually him.
Ellis is a beassstttt