Transcript of head coach Rex Ryan's news conference following Thursday's midday practice at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center:
We'll start with the injury report. Calvin Pace, out. This next one's got me a little choked up — Darrelle Revis was limited today with a hamstring. Brodney Pool was limited with his ankle.
The practice today wasn't a great practice. We're still introducing our game plan. Hopefully, it will be a better practice tomorrow. It was kind of windy out there. I was hoping the wind would hold off until Sunday. We're hoping for a cross wind of 50 miles an hour coming through there. We'll see if [Tom] Brady can throw through that stuff. I was pulling for that wind to hold off, so we'll see what happens.
On if something happened to Revis today…
He just had some tightness in the hamstring. He never missed anything yesterday, but today he felt a little tightness back there. Obviously, we're going to air on the side of caution there. We need him, obviously.
On if there is a chance that Revis won't play on Sunday…
No, I didn't say that. I'm just saying he was limited in practice.
On if they will alter their game plan if Revis can't play…
I would say that would definitely alter it if Darrelle couldn't play.
On if it would alter their plan if Revis wasn't 100 percent…
It would definitely alter your plan if he wasn't near 100 percent.
On if he expects Revis will play…
Yes. I think he'll play.
On if this is the type of injury that would occur in the first few weeks of training camp…
I don't think it's that severe of a hamstring injury. It isn't like he pulled his hamstring. Last year, in training camp, he actually did pull a hamstring. We're going to avoid that at all costs.
On when Revis first said he was injured…
Today was the only time he was limited.
On if the injury is on the same leg as last year…
You're giving me way too much credit. I don't know. Darrelle will probably know that, but I have no idea.
On if they will keep Revis on one side on Sunday to keep him from running as much…
No. I think the league's going to make us put him on [Randy] Moss [laughter]. Wherever Moss is, we've already made those statements.
On if practices are running longer…
They were today. If we didn't convert on a third down, we repeated those plays. If we had a penalty on defense, we had some tough love. We went back to grade-school, I'll be honest. We had the guy that got penalized circled by his teammates. He was in the middle of them and he had to count pushups. We're going to do anything. Whatever it takes to solve this, we're going to do.
On if the tough love is because of all the penalties on Monday…
Absolutely, and to let you know that "Hey, you're letting your teammates down." That guy is the first guy down, "I'll take them all." "No, you've got to watch your teammates do them." Anything. I know it's an old high school trick, but sometimes those old high school tricks still work on this level.
On who had to do pushups…
On defense. [The player who committed the penalty] was in the middle of them and they were all circled up and then he'd count them.
On how many pushups they had to do…
They'd do 10 each time.
On how many times players committed penalties…
I'd rather not get into that [laughter]. Too many times for our liking. That's why we were postponed a little bit. Not that many.
On if the entire team had to do pushups…
No, it was just the defense. The offense, if we didn't convert on third down, repeated the play.
On how concerned he is that Revis was limited in practice…
That's a concern. That's why I left him on the one side to practice because he didn't get the reps would normally take. We'll see. I'm not overly concerned right now, but anytime it's a hamstring, you get a little nervous.
On if Revis was feeling the injury during the game…
No, I don't believe he was. I think it was just today.
On if Brodney Pool will be able to play on Sunday…
He seemed like he did better today than he did yesterday. Hopefully, he can improve to where he can play.
On if he wouldn't have used "tough love" if they played badly after the first game last season…
No, I wouldn't say that. I definitely would have done it then, too. This is something I just thought we needed. I'll always do something I think we need if I think it's going to benefit that team. Obviously, the 14 penalties were alarming. We need to address something. For what we were doing, the officials do a great job out here at practice, so during the game wasn't the first time we had a penalty. We saw some in practice. I'm not going to let it happen. You're either coaching it or allowing it to happen and we're doing neither.
On if it is good to have a tough test after a loss…
I don't think I would have signed up for this if you gave me an option. The fact that New England does come into town, a divisional opponent, in my eyes, it's a game and a half. That's basically what these games end up being. We've got a huge opportunity in front of us and we have to play much better than we did Monday night.
On Sione Pouha replacing Kris Jenkins…
Sione is an outstanding player in his own right, no question. They're a little different. Both are big huge men, as we know. His play is a little different, but he's a tremendous run player and he's an improved pass rusher as well. He's basically coming into his own. It's been a few years. Sometimes that happens like that, a lineman, all of a sudden you give him an opportunity and boom! he hits it. He's playing great. He and Mike DeVito I thought were outstanding in that game against Baltimore, absolutely outstanding. We need them to play that way this week for sure.
On Matt Slauson's progress…
It seems like there was a play in the preseason game and a play here. If we can eliminate that, then this young man is going to do a tremendous job for us. He did a great job run blocking. I thought he played well in the game, with the one exception. That's what we have to try to avoid, the exception because those are the ones that we all remember.
On if this is a must-win game…
I don't know how believable that is in week two. We need a win in our stadium. That's the way it is. That's how I feel. That was the thing about last week. The fans were there, we had it going and we never found a way to get it done. Even though we had several opportunities, we didn't do it. Here, it's going to be a huge challenge. Yes, I want to win. Is it a must win where you absolutely have to have it? No, but it kind of feels like it.
On Tedy Bruschi's comments about Mark Sanchez…
I respect the heck out of Tedy Bruschi, no question, but I think he would have a different opinion if he was here every day. Tedy Bruschi is a guy, I really do respect him. That's a tough dude and he's smart. I think he would feel much different if he was here because of the way he leads on the practice field, the personality he has. What he says about him when we get ahead, that's how he is every day on the practice field. It never went our way on Monday night, but I would definitely not put Mark in a front-running category. This guy is a competitor and I think Bruschi would have loved to play with him.
On how big of a challenge it is for Sanchez to overcome the loss to Baltimore…
Well he's not going to match what Tom Brady does or accomplishes this week. That's not fair. I've always said, anytime we play New England, they're going to be better at two spots, head coach and quarterback [laughing]. I've always said that and it will be no different this week, but we're still going to try to win. If the rest of our team can overcome me as the head coach and Mark as the quarterback, we'll beat them.
On Bryan Thomas' performance Monday night…
He definitely had his best game since I've been here. You guys know more about it than I would throughout his career, but what a game he played. We got calls from some of the old players with Baltimore and they were raving about how BT played. It's neat when your peers recognize it as well. He was outstanding in the run game, pass-rush-wise, coverage. He did it all, he really did.
On defending Wes Welker…
I've always done a great job defending Wes Welker. Last year, when he the 20 catches [laughter]. How bad is that? If he catches half, he catches 10 balls. It would be a bad day for Welker, so I don't' know. I've got no answer for him. One thing we've got to do is we've got to hit him. If he's going to catch that many passes, we've got to hit him. We've got to get our hands on him and not give him free releases. All those kind of things, we're going to try to do, but he and Brady are a tough combination. He's going to get his catches, but we've just got to limit the run after the catch.
