12/19 — Say what you want about Adrien Clarke, but even when he's sitting in front of his locker, he's a standup guy.

My good friend Tom Rock from Newsday had a tough question and had to pose it. He asked Clarke during today's media session to revisit the heavy pressure the Jets' left guard allowed on the second offensive play to New England's Richard Seymour on Sunday, which resulted in Eugene Wilson's interception-return TD and Kellen Clemens' rib injury.

"I really don't know what it is that I can say," Clarke told Rock and several other reporters. "You saw it. It's not a great feeling, if that's what you're asking."

"When you can see something like that, it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel good at all."

Clarke was asked if he talked with Clemens about the play.

"When you're an offensive lineman," he began, "one of the things you pride yourself on is making sure your quarterback doesn't get touched and making sure you're opening up holes. When that doesn't happen, you feel terrible.

"When I saw him, I told him, 'My bad,' I apologized. There's no other way of putting it. I can sit down and take what you guys might say about it, but the actual feeling, knowing what happened, it's 10 times worse than that."

And when AC offered his apologies, what did KC say?

"He just told me, 'You've got a whole game in front of you, so don't worry about it. Just keep on making up for it on all the other plays,' " Clarke said. "He had a great attitude about it."

Clarke needs a similar attitude about this week of practice because it will likely be him and Will Montgomery at LG again, and Sunday's assignment in Nashville, Tenn., will be trying to hold Titans DRT Albert Haynesworth at bay.

"He embarrasses people. He's a great player," Clarke said, shrugging off the prospect of sleepless nights ahead leading up to this game. "That's what comes with the territory. You just try to prepare yourself the best way that you can, just try and put your best foot forward and go from there."

Many Green & White fans are rooting for Adrien Clarke to do just that.

Speaking of Quarterbacks

Head coach Eric Mangini did not designate his starter for Tennessee, stating at his late-morning news conference of the decision: "It's really health-related. We have to see where Kellen is, what he can do in terms of practice throughout the course of the week and where he is at the end of the week with his ability to function effectively."

We'll have more after practice in a short while.