The New York Jets have posted a 4-4 record in NFL Wild Card Playoff games, and they have won their past two Wild Card contests. On Sunday, the Green & White will face the Patriots for just the second time in postseason play. On December 28, 1985, the Patriots defeated the Jets 26-14 at the Meadowlands.
"It's exciting. The Patriots have only played the Jets one time in their history in the playoffs," said Jets head coach Eric Mangini. "There has been a long history of playing each other, but not a long history of playing each other in the playoffs. Whenever you get to play a division opponent for a third time, it's exciting."
Read below for Coach Mangini's complete press conference transcript
New York Jets' Head Coach Eric Mangini, 1.1
Opening Statement
Happy New Year, everybody. I hope you got to celebrate a little last night.
I would like to offer my condolences to Darrent Williams' family. Obviously this is a horrible tragedy and a very difficult time. We just want them to know that our thoughts and prayers are with them in this period.
The players of the game; offensively Anthony Clement did a very good job against the pass rusher, Defensively; it was Shaun Ellis; and special teams; Eric Smith. Our practice player of the week, which is always our most important award, this guy probably takes more reps than anybody at practice and--Wallace Wright was pushing him for a while when he was working on both sides of the ball-- is Wade Smith.
Overall, yesterday was another good, collective team effort, with all three phases contributing. We talk all the time about finishing, whether it be finishing a play in practice, finishing a period, finishing the practice itself, a meeting, whatever the case may be and how important that and yesterday was about finishing the regular season for us. I was proud of the way that the guys worked all season and proud of the way that we finished the season and earned the opportunity to play this week. That's what we've been working for a long time and they earned it.
What we're doing today is like every other week. We are looking at the corrections from the game, going through those corrections, making sure we got those fixed and we are able to make some progress and our full focus will shift to the Patriots.
On watching the Denver/San Francisco game last night…
I watched a little bit of those games. It took a little while to get home after the game. I saw a little bit of them. It was tough because Jake really didn't want to watch football. He had gotten his fill from the game that afternoon, and so it was in between that and we played a little Playdough and some Candyland. It was a split between the three.
On when Mangini knew the Jets would face New England in the playoffs…
Mike (Tannebaum) called me after the completion of the game, after he got the official call in terms of who the opponent would be and what the time would be. He gave me a call at the house.
On facing New England a third time this season…
We felt that anybody that we were going to play this week was going to be a very good football team, whether it was Indianapolis or New England or however the other scenarios could have worked out. This is a totally different level of competition now and a different challenge for us. Being a division opponent, there's some familiarity both ways. We are familiar with them and they are familiar with us and that has both positives and negatives.
On what Mangini was thinking after learning the Jets would face New England…
I was thinking it will probably be a busy week down here. There will probably be some questions I've answered before. I think it's great. I'm excited about the challenge of next week and going to Indianapolis was going to be a great challenge, too. It was an exciting day for us because of finishing the season, earning the spot and we knew whoever it was going to be, it was going to be a tough game. With it being New England, it's an opponent that we have two games against and some background on in a lot of different areas, which is good and bad.
On the previous two match-ups with New England…
There are definitely things that you can take away from it, the lessons from the first game, the lessons from the second game. But their approach is very opponent-specific and it's very game-specific. There may be some things they have seen since we played them last that they like offensively or defensively on special teams and that's not a set approach week-in and week-out. What's set is that their approach is unique to us, but it's important for us to go back and see the pluses and minuses of those two games as well as what we have done since the last time we played them to anticipate some of the things they may do.
On the Jets taking a similar approach as New England…
The approach that we've been taking is very game-specific. Philosophically there are a lot of similarities, attack weaknesses, minimize strengths and play to your strengths.
On Bill Belichick…
My thoughts are exactly the same as they have been for the first few games. My approach is no different. My feelings are no different. I respect and appreciate all of the things that he's done for me throughout the course of my career and that's never going to change.
On I didn't know what to put here…
This is the first time I've been in this position, so there are a lot of things that for me are very new in terms of the whole job of being a head coach. Each week I learn something new, and I don't necessarily go in with an expectation of how anything is going to be, but as I said, my feelings are exactly the same.
On if New England dreaded facing the Jets in the playoffs when Mangini took the job…
That's the magic of the conference call. That's one of those things that is a better question for the other side.
On playoff teams…
Every team playing in the playoffs is a good team, whether it's us or whether they are playing somebody else. The level of intensity changes, the level of competition changes. Everything changes once you enter into the post-season, and whoever they (New England) played was going to be a good team.
On facing New England for the third time this season…
It's exciting. The Patriots have only played the Jets one time in their history in the playoffs. There's been a long history of playing each other, but not a long history of playing each other in the playoffs and whenever you get to play a division opponent for a third time, it's exciting.
On Belichick…
My feeling is exactly the same, personally and professionally. My family's feelings, we feel exactly the same way we have since I was here in '97 or in Cleveland and right on down the line.
On proving himself to his former mentor…
The group of guys that we have and the way that we have worked together and the way that we have grown together and shared the experiences that we've had. Earning this opportunity, it's us working together. That's what's important to me is us, and the things that we do.
On the danger of over preparing for New England…
As long as you do everything that you possibly can, so that by the time the game comes, you feel that you put your team in the best position to succeed. Whatever level that is, as long as you have a comfort level that you've done all you could to get to Sunday and the team is as well prepared as they could be to go execute, then that's really the guide that you have to use and that's the guide that I've been using week-in and week-out. That's really the approach I'm going to take here, too.
On Brian Schottenheimer's (offensive coordinator) contributions week-to-week…
Brian has done a great job. It goes back to that first meeting when we sat in the defensive meeting room. We watched a bunch of tapes, shut off the tape and we had lunch and we talked about a lot of philosophical ideas, such as, 'how do you feel about game planning? How do you feel about attacking weakness? How do you feel about getting outside the system?' Because a lot of people get so caught up in this is the system, this is the way it has to be run, that you lose so many opportunities to become a better unit, whether it's offense, defense or special teams and to take advantage of real weaknesses.
I could tell that he was excited about doing those things and that's how he was built. You can see it in his play calling and the multiple formations and really the whole offensive staff, they get in the room, they come out and I enjoy seeing the script because I like those, I like the double-reverse. I like the motioning Chad (Pennington) in and back out and running the quarterback sneak, taking the shots, the flip plays, all of those different things. Defensively when you have to sit back and get ready for those, it consumes a lot of time and it causes a lot of angst and I want to cause angst for our opponents and I think Brian does a good job.
In talking to different coordinators that we've played, especially Rob (Ryan) yesterday, Rob talked about the difficulties that he had getting ready for the offense; and that's the best gain for me is, how long did it take you? How much work did you have to do? How many mental errors were there? What kind of problems were created during the week so that you could not focus on just a small group of concepts and really hone in?
On the search for an offensive coordinator…
I went into the search wanting someone from the San Diego/Kansas City/St. Louis family, because those are offenses that always caused problems defensively as a coordinator and position coach. I wanted someone from that family. I wanted someone that was open-minded toward the no-huddle and I wanted someone that the things that I understood from a defensive perspective that caused problem, that was open to that feedback and could incorporate that. Sometimes I think that the way we view the world is different than the way offensive coaches view the world, but if you can incorporate the other perspective, it can add some damage or it can add some problems to an opponent. I liked his energy. I like the way that he's detail-oriented. I like the way that he relates to the players. All of those things were real positives for me. I like the fact that he was younger than me. (Laughing).
On Rodney Harrison possibly being out for Sunday's game…
Until you see that Rodney is not out there, we are going to plan that he is, unless we get some official word that he's definitely out. Rodney's tough. He's like Laveranues (Coles)-tough. Until I see that he's not out there, because there were rumors that he would not be out there before our first game and one play into it, he's out there causing problems. We'll have to hold off on that one.
On one thing Mangini learned from Belichick…
I don't think you can summarize it in terms of one philosophy or one approach. There have been multiple things that I took away.
I'd say the one thing I took away from that whole New England experience was the value of character. The locker room was filled with character. To me, character wins. Character is so important, not just when you're winning, but really when you're losing. When things are tough, when it's hard to come to work, when it's hard to sacrifice because it's not going to the way you want it to go. Those are the guys that continue to fight. If you're down a lot of points, those are the ones that continue to fight. That's probably the thing that I learned, the one thing that if I had to summarize it from that experience was the value of character.
On what the first win against New England did for the teams confidence…
That was important, even if it wasn't New England, whoever we played after that point, that game was important. After the bye week we had done so much work as a team to evaluate the first half of the season, looking at what the problems were, fixing the problems. Whoever we played, to see the benefits of that work and to see that we had fixed a lot of things and not saying that we had fixed everything, but we had done some good work during that time off, so that was important. Whenever you can beat a division opponent on the road, that you have not had a lot of success with, that's important as well. Since the bye, I see consistent progress, not that there wasn't some before that, but I think that was a very good week for us collectively.
On the value of the NE win for Sunday…
It's a good thing. It's much better than the alternative. But it doesn't necessarily translate into anything this week. What's going to control the outcome on Sunday is what we do between now and Sunday, just like what we did between the previous game and that game. There's a lot of stuff that we took away from that and learned from that point that actually applied to a lot of games. What's going to matter now is going home and studying today, first of all, getting corrections from the Raider game, getting the intro to New England, the reintroduction, the study, the practice, the execution and the consistency of approach that we have had throughout this, because that's going to be key and the level of intensity is also going to pick up dramatically as we move forward.
On Belichick…
You know, my approach is not going to change one bit. My feelings are not going to change one bit, and they have not changed from the first time to the second time, this time next year, hopefully years in the future. It's not going to change.
On the veterans giving the rookies a sense of what the playoffs mean…
The benefit of the last four or five weeks is every game for us has been extremely significant, and each game has taken on more and more significance. We had to win those games to get to this point, and there was a sense similar to the sense that we have now. It's a one-game season and you need to win that game in order to move forward. That's actually been a benefit of the situation we've been in.
The young guys have done a really good job of listening to the older guys who have experience and they need to understand, too, that we are playing a team that's lived in the playoffs for quite a few years and that locker room is filled with playoff experience. That has value, as well. We need to match that intensity.
On turning the team around in his first season…
It's a great feeling to finish the season the way we did. To me, the accomplishment comes in with what we've been collectively talking about for so long, and to see these guys and the way that they have worked. That is the most satisfying thing, the way that we have worked, the way that we have committed as a group, the way that we have made progress. As a coach, that's what you're looking for is to be able to help that progress along. The whole staff has done a great job with moving the team forward.
On David Barrett and Andre Dyson in the cornerback position…
They did a good job. The play that I really liked that David made, and it's something we have been working on for quite some time, when they hit the slant, he came in and made the tackle and ripped the ball out. That's been a real point of emphasis for a while. We have the board up now at practice where we have monitored that throughout the whole practice and I saw two or three plays like that, which I really liked. That was the first one in the game where we've actually gone in and securing the tackle, and you can see the volume of force that he's putting on the ball to get it out. Hank (Poteat) is actually the guy that recovered that. I was pleased with them.
Justin (Miller) did a nice job when he was in, and Drew (Coleman) was spotting in there as well. Eric Smith got a little more time and made the pick there. That group did well overall.
On Nick Mangold leaving the game with an injury…
He came back in and he's a little sore today and getting treatment. I'll monitor that with John (Mellody- head trainer) and see where he is leading into Wednesday. It was good that he was able to go back and finish the game. He's gone through two or three tough injuries and comeback and I think he's missed two plays with three injuries; painful. He has the tough part.
