Transcript of Jets interviews following their 24-7 victory over the Texans at Houston on Sunday:
HEAD COACH REX RYAN
On the game...
All right, well. That's the first one right there. You know I said before that I thought we have a pretty good football team and it was great to get a road win against an AFC opponent. This is a heck of an opponent, too. But our guys played like I thought we were capable of playing. It was a great team effort.
The key was first downs. This team is outstanding on first downs. Houston is the best in the league on offense. I think our defense did a great job of controlling first down and that put them in a situation where they never wanted to be in, and that was third-and-long. We're pretty good on third down when we get you backed up.
But that's a good football team we just got through beating. You saw our offensive line I think play outstanding. I don't think we gave up a sack all day. I thought the kid [QB Mark Sanchez] did a great job of avoiding pressure in the pocket and made some big throws for us. You know unfortunately we gave that touchdown up. That would have been something. But you know it's hard to get a shutout in this league. But our defense did a great job against an explosive offense.
I would also like to single out [Darrelle] Revis. I think he was locked on the best receiver in the game, or one of them if he's not the best, Andre Johnson. So he did an outstanding job. I don't know how many balls Andre caught, but he deserved them. I mean, he had to catch it in a crowd and I thought he did a great job.
On Sanchez and third downs...
Oh, I know, it was interesting. It was like we were better at third-and-long than we were at third-and-short. That doesn't happen too often. But it just tells you also about the protection we have. He was able to focus, get his drops, get his reads downfield, and threw accurately. So not bad for a couple of rookies today, him and myself.
On his feelings about the win...
It feels great. You know, shoot, I'm glad we're 1-0. That's where we expected to be. We knew it would be a tough win against a good football team, but our guys were up to the task. And I think I told you our defense played good. Despite what everybody thought preseason.
On hitting Texans QB Matt Schaub...
Well, we knew we weren't going to be able to sack him. He was one of the hardest quarterbacks to sack last year. I think we only got him twice. But we had a lot of hits on the quarterback, knocked him around a little bit. And no quarterback likes to get hit. He's a good quarterback and he took some shots a lot of guys would have tapped out on. He's a tough guy.
On the tone LB Bart Scott set for the defense...
I just thought our defense, it was the pride in the unit. I think everybody played well. You know, we did our job. We'll see the tapes. It's never as good as you think it is, it's never as bad as you think it is. But I think our defense played like I though we would. This was an outstanding opponent we were up against, they were ranked third in the league last year. And they are one of the top offenses in the league at home. You know, we had some things stacked against us. We played without two guys, and like we expect, our next guy has got to step up and I think our guys did and I think we played pretty well.
On the receiving corps of Jerricho Cotchery, Chansi Stuckey and David Clowney...
Yeah, imagine that. No, I mean, again, we're about the whole unit, you know, and the pride in the unit. It's not one individual. We're a team and we're going to have receivers by committee. Because you know each guy can do different things and so we're strength by committee. But we've got NFL receivers and they did a good job. And again, I think it's just a combination of our offensive line protecting, Sanchez made those throws, and I think our guys did an outstanding job of catching those footballs and running after the catch as well.
On the turnover leading to the Texans touchdown...
We did, when we were trying to kneel down he lost like 8 yards on that one kneeldown. That was the only thing. I'm like "What are you doing?" But you know, other than that, it made the one throw unfortunately a touchdown going the other direction. You know he wishes he had that one throw back and maybe one or two others, but again, I thought he showed great poise in the pocket. And he's able to move and buy a little extra time. This is why we took the guy. This is why we traded up to get him.
On being more run-oriented before the interception...
Yeah, I think that's safe to say. You know, hindsight is 20-20. But in that situation, when you are up three scores and I think our defense is playing well enough, you know we forgot to do a little "ground and pound." I think we snuck one in there and unfortunately it never worked. And really what the situation was was that we were killing ourselves. We had a couple of penalties that backed it up and made it second-and-longer-than-we-wanted-it-to-be. We had a couple of, you know, a false start and things that I think contributed to that interception.
On scoring another touchdown after the interception...
Huge. Huge. When Thomas [Jones] popped that big run, you know the offensive line did a great job. But you know that's huge. We had the game, we were in control of the game, and to their credit they made a great play on defense and put it in the end zone and made it a whole new game. And so when our offense was able to come back and get that score back, that took the wind out of their sails a little bit, I think.
On Sanchez's poise after throwing the interception...
Oh, yeah, that was big-time. Yeah, absolutely. You know what we've been saying about this young man, you know we think he's special. That was his first start against an outstanding opponent at home. They got a couple of elite players on defense. I thought he did well."
On what message he wants to send about the Jets...
Same one I've been sending since the day I got here. You know I believe in this football team, I believe in the coaches we have, I believe in the players we have, and I believe in the support staff. And I've been saying it all along, just nobody wanted to listen.
DE MIKE DeVITO
On stepping in for Jets DE Shaun Ellis and his fumble recovery...
Everybody did a great job today. They [Shaun Ellis and Calvin Pace] are two great players that we missed and we knew we had a great challenge on our hands. Everybody stepped up and we played team defense. It was just a great way for us to start the season.
On the Jets deferring to go on defense on the opening coin toss to set the tempo for the game...
That was the point. We wanted to go out there and send the message to them that we were going to punch them in the mouth from the beginning. We wanted to come out there and play tough, smashmouth defense. That's why we decided to go out there and defer on defense.
On how having training camp in Cortland brought the team closer to the win today...
It's great. It's like we are all brothers in here. There is no drama. We are just brothers and we are tight and we showed that out in the field today. That's going to happen all season.
G ALAN FANECA
On Mark Sanchez being able to move outside of the pocket when there was pressure coming from the outside...
It was good. It makes our job a lot easier and it makes the defenses account for that. It makes them attack you differently when you got a guy that can move around in the pocket.
On Sanchez's presence in the huddle...
He did great. He was a little different from preseason to now, but his presence is felt in our huddle.
NT KRIS JENKINS
On Rex Ryan's night-before-the-game speech...
Honestly, it is hard to kind of put it into words but we have come to the conclusion that we need to call the NFLPA and put him on the banned-substances list because whatever he did, he said, was performing-enhancing, definitely. You could just tell by the excitement that a lot of guys believe in the system. We really think this is going to be a structured year for us. We are just trying to make sure that we do our best to keep this coach around.
On how the team lived up to the expectations of Ryan's speech...
To tell you the truth, most of my career, since most of my life I have always been a part of the underdog team. When he came in here, everybody was pretty much starting to write us off, like "Oh, new coach this season, new quarterback this season." And it was one of those things that we took as a slap in the face. You have a lot of guys that have been looking past us, looking over us and not giving us the credit that we are a solid defense. For us it is not about proving it to other people. We understand what we have in this locker room and we are trying to go out and push each other and do the best that we can as a unit.
On how the Jets proved something to the doubters...
I really don't care what the doubters and naysayers think. When we're on the football field, the special thing about football is everybody can run their mouth and talk about whatever they want to. When we're on the field, it is in our hands. Anybody can say what they want to and I challenge them to stand on the sideline and look at the stands and see how we play and see if they still believe that same stuff they're talking."
RB THOMAS JONES
On how the offense attack was balanced...
I thought today we did a great job of playing as a team. The defense played a great game; they kept them out of the end zone and kept giving us the ball. On offense, Mark [Sanchez] did a great job, the receivers did a great job of making plays and we were able to run the ball. Me and Leon [Washington], it was tough in the first half but we stuck with it. We had some tough runs; the offensive line did a great job in the second half. We're pretty happy with way the game turned out.
On how Sanchez stepped up after the Texans stopped the run early...
You have to be able to complement each other with the run and pass and Mark did a great job of making some great throws and making some really good reads for a young guy. The coaches did a really good job preparing him for what he is going to see and making sure he was ready to play. We're obviously balanced and anytime you can be balanced and getting that many yards in a game offensively, you have a pretty good chance of winning."
TE DUSTIN KELLER
On how QB Mark Sanchez played today...
He played a heck of a game. He made big plays on third down. We expect those types of things from him the rest of the season."
On Sanchez being able to avoid pressure...
He's really good about that while being under pressure. His first couple of steps are real quick. He thinks he can beat me in a 55-yard shuttle, but there's no way that is happening. He played a heck of a game.
G BRANDON MOORE
On the win on the road...
It was huge. It was a physical game. We knew it was not going to be easy. Coming in, we had to pound-pound-pound. That is what Rex has been talking about all year and we kind of opened up in the fourth quarter."
On the Jets' third-down success...
We were in a lot of third-and-longs, which is what you don't want. First and second down wasn't so good for us but he has a lot of pocket presence. He was able to slide his feet, make a couple this way, a couple that way. Us trying to finish off our blocks and he made some big plays down the field.
On how the Jets came out in a rhythm in the second half...
Rex told us in the locker room that he was going to defer it. The defense had their challenge and they stepped up. [The Texans] had that one first down and then they stopped them and we got the ball. It was huge. The defense stepped in. They were under a lot of pressure coming in, Shaun out, Calvin out. I think those guys made a lot of plays out there.
CB DARRELLE REVIS
On how aggressive the Jets' defense was...
We were very aggressive. That was our game plan the whole week. We wanted to be physical because we knew they were a finesse offense. We wanted to put them on their heels and that's what we did.
On his play against Texans WR Andre Johnson...
That was the coaches' game plan for me to be on him. I stuck around him everywhere and it worked out great.
QB MARK SANCHEZ
On what this first NFL regular-season game meant to him...
This is pretty special, it is a great way to start, but we have a lot of work to do. Me putting our defense in a hole like that by throwing a pick-six to the house was a big-time rookie mistake. I'm just happy we were able to make plays that made up for it. Our defense locked them down after that.
LB BRYAN THOMAS
On setting an aggressive defensive tempo for the game...
Well, that was our plan throughout the whole week. Coach Ryan and Mike Pettine wanted us to come out and be aggressive. They wanted us to attack, attack and attack. That was the key for us, to have an aggressive defense, and that was our mindset coming into this game."
On how Jets CB Darrelle Revis matched up against Texans WR Andre Johnson...
Darrelle is a good cover guy and we are going to put him on their best player. That's pretty much what it is. We know what he is going to do and all the other opportunities are up to the rest of the defense.
On how the defense took the pressure off of QB Mark Sanchez in his first pro start...
That was our mindset coming into this game. We tried to take as much pressure off him as possible. As you can see, he did real well out there. He handled the pressure well. He ran and scrambled. He threw the ball and found all of our receivers. He's in the making of being a good quarterback.
