Jets Coach Rex Ryan, who will play a Patriots fan in a coming Adam Sandler movie, sounded like a fan of the Patriots when he said early Monday morning: “They beat us twice. We think we’re as good as they are, but clearly, we’re not.”
The full transcript of Ryan’s remarks to reporters are below, as provided by the Jets. Among other things, he apologized to fans; he took responsibility for a Mark Sanchez timeout that Ryan had called “the stupidest play in football history” during a halftime interview; and he jokingly suggested that he should just declare the Jets’ playoff chances over — because it worked once before.
HEAD COACH REX RYAN, TRANSCRIPT
We wanted to win this game in the worst way. You’re not going to beat many teams when you make the mistakes that we made. We’ve been down this road before. I apologize to our fans. They were ready to go just like I thought we were. It’s disappointing, but we can’t dwell on it. We have four days until we play Denver, who is playing well. We have to put this game behind us as fast as we can.
On the Jets defensive struggles against the Patriots up-tempo offense…
There were a couple of times where we didn’t match up properly, and they threw a couple of quick passes. That’s what that team does. You have to be alert. We never got the matchups we wanted, so you have to give them a lot of credit.
On if he was stunned by the mistakes…
I thought we’d play a lot better. I thought we had really improved, I really did. I think we did improve, but when you make those types of mistakes — you fumble a punt, you have a poor timeout … time management was an absolutely critical error. That’s my responsibility. I own that one. You make that many mistakes against that team, there’s no chance.
On his halftime interview with NBC when he said a timeout before the half was “the worst play in NFL history”…
That’s my responsibility. That’s all it is, my responsibility.
On how it’s his responsibility…
I’m responsible for everything that happens with this football team. That’s my responsibility and it’s my fault. I own that.
On the pass protection…
When you’re up all those scores, you tee off on the quarterback. That’s exactly what they did. We’re trying to make big plays downfield, and that’s what happens. That defense is a lot better than people give them credit for. They’re 32nd in the league and all that, but when you get up a lot of scores on people, you’re going to give up yards. Clearly, we have to do a much better job protecting the quarterback.
On the feeling on the bench after the first drive ended with a missed field goal…
Those things happen, but that was the kind of night it was. As great as Nick has been, we missed a field goal, a chip shot. He’s been tremendous all season. He missed a 50-yard kick in a crosswind [at Buffalo], but other than that, he hasn’t missed a kick all year. It just seems that’s what happened to us. It just snowballed.
On how the Patriots drove 80 yards for a touchdown before halftime…
Easy – that’s the New England Patriots out there. They had two timeouts. They did a great job and executed. That’s what that team can do.
On matchups difficulties with Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski…
About 6’7″, I guess. That was one of the issues. The kid makes a lot of plays. He’s a factor in the red zone. You have to watch [Wes] Welker. They have a lot of weapons. We tried to match them up in different zones, we tried to bracket sometimes, but the young man did a nice job of catching the football.
On if the defensive play-calling system will change…
No, we’ll do what we always do. It’ll be the way we’ve done things for years here. [Defensive coordinator] Mike Pettine is a great football coach, it’s not his fault.
On if the division is still attainable…
It looks doubtful right now. What am I going to say? Maybe I should guarantee the fact that we’re out of it. The last time I did that, we made the playoffs. Yeah, we don’t have a chance.
On the difficulty of playing against lesser known players whose skill sets aren’t known…
You have a pretty good idea. They did a nice job. They’re a great football team. When you have No. 12 back there, I don’t care who else you’ve got. You see the difference a great quarterback makes in this league. You just have to look down the road at Indy. This guy’s an amazing player. You have Vince Wilfork in there. You have a lot of great players on that team. They’ve done a nice job. James Ihedigbo, I thought, played extremely well as well today.
On the play of Sanchez…
He was inconsistent, like the play of the rest of the team.
On the disappointment that the Patriots will likely win the AFC East…
Well, they have to get past Buffalo, too. It’s tough. They beat us twice. We think we’re as good as they are, but clearly, we’re not. We weren’t today, that’s for sure.
On the challenge of playing a game on Thursday…
The fact that we just got beat like we got beat, it’s probably a good thing, so we can’t dwell on it. That’s the thing that we have to do – we have to move on. We have to move on quickly. Denver’s playing really well on defense. With [Broncos QB Tim] Tebow, to be honest with you, I have to watch him. I don’t know what he presents, but he’s been running. They’ve been running the ball no matter who’s at tailback. We’ve got to get ready to go down there. With the way Denver’s playing, we know it’s going to be a tough game, but we have to get this thing behind us and go play Denver.
On Jets RB LaDainian Tomlinson’s injury…
I’m not sure. I think it’s a knee, but I wasn’t real sure. I don’t know the severity of it.
Mark Sanchez did not try to defend his decision to take a timeout before the end of the first half: “I just have to manage the clock better and that’s a rookie mistake, you can’t do that in your third year. So that really put our defense in a tough spot.”
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