The following quotes were obtained from the Jacksonville Jaguars PR Department.
QB CHAD PENNINGTON
(On the loss)* *"I don't have any explanation to what happened out there. I know we prepared very hard this week, had a good game plan, and everybody was confident – including myself. The bottom fell out of it somehow. You can't win with turnovers –especially on the road. And, you cannot turn the ball over in your own territory and give them easy chances to score points. We have to go back, look at it, analyze it and try to fix it. It only counts as one game."
(On getting down early) "Of course we want to be able to start faster. Up until now, we've been able to finish stronger. We're not overly concerned with it because in three of the games, we were either in the lead or tied at halftime. I think it's just a matter of time and we need to just start out and put some good drives together in the first quarter."
(On his performance) "I'm disappointed in how I played. You don't give your team much of a chance when you make three interceptions. When they jumped out on us so quick, they wouldn't quit and we knew we had to get multiple scores and press the issue a little."
(On Jets head coach Eric Mangini) "The good thing about Coach (Mangini) is that he won't let us get too high or too low, win or lose. He will take the same approach and has been very consistent throughout. We'll go back and without changing the approach too much, figure out what we have to do to get better."
RB LEON WASHINGTON
(On returning to his hometown of Jacksonville) "I really wasn't nervous. I felt pretty comfortable about playing in the game and excited about playing in front of the home crowd and members of my family. It's always good to be back home, but we're professionals. This was a business trip for us and it was very, very disappointing to come out with the type of performance we gave today. We were beaten up and down the field and in all phases of the game – offensively, defensively and special teams. Hats off to the Jaguars. They really took advantage of the situation. I had a chance to talk to a lot of those guys I know here on the Jacksonville team, but it's a game and a business. We had a chance to take care of our jobs today and we didn't do it."
(On his starting opportunity) "It felt good to get the opportunity. Coach talks about it all the time – taking advantage of the opportunity and going out there and playing. But, when you put that type of bad effort in that we did today, it's inexcusable. Obviously, I'm very disappointed."
WR LAVERANUES COLES
(On being double-teamed) "It's nothing I haven't dealt with before. Teams want to figure out where I am on the field. I have a role to play and that's it."
(On the loss) "At this time, you don't want to get into feelings. You just try to think about everything that went on and watch the game film and try to make the corrections. When you lose a tough game like this, you just go back and regroup and try to figure out what your role is and where you fit in."
(On what went wrong today) "I don't know what happened. I don't have the answers. If I did, I'd probably be coaching. But I'm a player and I just go out wide and do what I'm told to do. I'm just a pawn in a chess game. They move me here and there. They ask me to do something, and I do it."
LB ERIC BARTON
(On penalty after hit on Leftwich) "I don't know. I just went in to tackle the quarterback and the referee said it was helmet to helmet so I guess it was helmet to helmet. They get paid. I guess whatever they say is right."
(On eliminating mistakes) "It's frustrating but we have to get to the point that we can over things like that as a team. We have to make those things irrelevant to the way the game goes."
