Brian Schottenheimer interview transcript 12/9/10

On Thursday New York Jets offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer addressed the media.  Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.

On Mark Sanchez’s ability to bounce back after losses…

“You hope you don’t have too many games you have to bounce back from (laughing). When they do happen, I think he has shown an ability to put things behind him. We’ve all talked in here about how emotional he is. He’s a very emotional guy. Tuesday he was in, obviously, watching the game. (He) was here most of the day, until late in the evening. Wednesday, he was great in meetings. I don’t know what it is. I think it speaks to his competitiveness. I think it speaks to his mental toughness. You’re still talking about a young player. To be able to come back from some difficult games, even going back to last year and bounce back from those things, show you number one, that he’s all those things (competitive and mentally tough), plus, that he’s confident. We realize that’s who we have and we expect him to bounce back this week, along with the rest of the guys.”

On Sanchez trying to bounce back from two subpar games in a row…

“I’m sure last year there were two bad games in a row. I think, Cincinnati, he probably didn’t play his best game, but obviously, we didn’t have the turnovers. I think he’s learning that you have to play this thing one game at a time. That’s the way the season goes. There’s going to be bumps in the road. You ask the Peyton Mannings. You ask, well maybe not Tom Brady, right now (joking). Everybody goes through it. Drew Brees goes through it, Philip Rivers goes through it, and if you don’t have the mental toughness to overcome that, then I think you’re probably in the wrong profession. I think that he does have that. I know he has that, for a fact. Again, I think he’ll bounce back. His focus has been great. He wasn’t the only reason that we didn’t perform very well. He wasn’t the only reason we didn’t win the game. There was plenty of blame to go around, myself included.”

On whether Coach Ryan can impart any new knowledge on Sanchez during their lunch meeting…

“I think it’s really important that a head coach and a quarterback have a great relationship, and they obviously do, whether it’s our Friday meetings with myself, Mark, Rex and Cav (Quarterbacks Coach Matt Cavanaugh). I know for a fact that Rex has insight into Mike Nolan (Miami defensive coordinator), completely different than I do. I can look at the film and say, ‘Here’s what I think Mike’s going to do to us on third down and four to six (yards). Here’s his philosophy when you’re backed up.’ As much as we try to mask it, we all have fingerprints. We all have philosophical things that we do, so if you have inside information on Brian Schottenheimer, Rex Ryan or Mike Nolan, I think it’s a benefit. I think that’ll help Mark. Rex is great. Rex’s strongest suit is (his) people skills and he and Mark are great. Anything that he can give him from that vantage point, I’m all for it.”

On if he thinks Coach Ryan can help him with preparing for Mike Nolan and his defense…

“It’s the same exact thing. Rex, he looks at the film, and he gives us some thoughts and ideas. There’s some things, formationally that he’s been around with Mike. All that stuff is priceless because, again, in certain situations, we’re all going to revert back to our final core of beliefs (and) what those things are. In crunch time, whatever I might call, there’s going to be something that Mike’s going to call. I think having that insight is very valuable. That’s one of those things, when you go back to the Cleveland game, it was good on both sides of the ball. I felt that we knew Eric a little bit, whereas, Rex knew his brother, obviously. That stuff does help.”

On if starting the game on offense would affect his play-calling…

“I think that’s nice of Rex, I really do. I think our guys will be excited about it, but bottom line, we have to execute. I think we went into that game last week, you guys saw it, where we had some openers that we had worked (on). We talked about it. Then, when we got the wind, we decided to go two-minute, no huddle, up-tempo. You guys all saw it. (It was) to try and take advantage of (the wind), make them have some communication issues. For him to show that confidence in us, I think our guys will be excited about it. At the end of the day, it’s more than that. You have to go out and execute. Hopefully, if and when he does that, we’re able to pay dividends on that.”

On if he believes Coach Ryan will actually choose to start on offense…

“I believe Rex. Whatever he says, I believe Rex is going to do that. He might forget sometimes and have to be reminded about it, but no, Rex is awesome.”

On LaDainian Tomlinson saying sometimes the offense can start flat when waiting on the sidelines…

“I’ll never make that excuse, not that LT (LaDainian Tomlinson) is making that excuse. It’s different for a player. You’re warmed up, (then) you have to sit down. You guys have probably seen Mark (Sanchez), he rides the bike all the time now trying to stay loose, so it is a little bit different. We all know that Rex is going to make decisions that he thinks give us the best chance to win. The fact that he’s willing to do this or talk about doing this is awesome. I think our guys will respond to it and be excited about it. There’s not a magic formula. You still have to go out and perform, and unfortunately, that’s where we came up short the other night.”

On why Sanchez has not seemed as effective in their base, non up-tempo offense…

“That’s a great question. It’s hard to answer, to be honest with you. I’m not trying to avoid the question. It’s unfair to say it’s all Mark when we do poor. It’s unfair to say it’s all Mark when we do (well). There’s (been) some unbelievable catches, some plays on the two-minute drives that people have made for him. I think it’s just really us. We’ve always prided ourselves on being a team that can go the long, hard way. We run the ball well. We sustain. We’re supposed to throw completions. When we get off that formula, (that) is when we get in trouble. We go back to the Cleveland game. I think we had a 19-play drive. We come up short in the red zone and we miss a field goal. I think we just have to go back and the focus is (to) play one play at a time. That’s all you can do. To sit there and say that there’s not (going to) be bad things that happen in a football game is crazy. There’s going to be bad things, but the great offenses, the high-powered offenses, overcome those things. Whatever kind of ball we want to play, Mark is capable of doing that, but we have to do it better.”

On if Sanchez has too much responsibility on his plate…

“I know for a fact that he doesn’t have too much on his plate. I think one thing that he does like to do, which you’ve made mention (of), is that he likes to go faster. As a matter of fact, it happened today in practice. We kind of (were) not going through the motions, but we weren’t as crisp as we’ve been. We went really up-tempo, and we huddled, but it’s kind of like more of an up-tempo (pace). He likes that. That gets him going. The quicker we can get in and out of the huddle, the quicker I can get the calls to him, the quicker we can get to the line of scrimmage, (the better off we are). One of the challenges of playing so many people is, a lot of times, you’ll have people running in and out of the game You saw us try to avoid that last week. Obviously, the game didn’t lend itself to where we could substitute a whole lot, but there’s no question that he likes to play at a fast tempo. Again, that’s everybody’s responsibility. One of the things we were talking about this week was cleaner substitutions in and out of the huddle to where, ‘Hey, if we’re going from one personnel grouping to the other, make sure everybody’s eyes are on the sidelines so it’s clean and so we’re not getting him up to the line of scrimmage where he has 15 seconds on the play clock and he has to go through a shift, a motion or a check.’ That’s hard for any quarterback.”

On whether he thought the wind affected Sanchez…

“I don’t. I know the one ball, the interception (on the pass intended for) Braylon (Edwards), he just felt like he missed it. He ended up taking too many steps. He took two steps too many to try to get up and down. To say that the weather didn’t affect the things we were doing would be wrong because, like I said, we probably wouldn’t have started the game in no-huddle if we were going the other way. No, I don’t think (it affected him). He threw the ball well. There were some things, a couple of balls that looked behind guys, where it was miscommunication. They weren’t on the same page. Those are the things that we’re trying to get cleaned up and that you have to stay on. When you work through the course of a week, you just have to keep correcting that stuff, teach it and get it fixed.”

On where Sanchez is in his ability to read defenses…

“It’s getting a lot better. He sees things better. He comes off the field now and before even looking at the picture, he can actually tell me, “Hey, I saw this guy go back to the middle, which is what took me over there.” Obviously, the last interception, which was probably the worst one, he never saw the guy. He kind of made up his mind (after) he saw the one safety start to go back to the middle (on) the (ball) he threw right to James Sanders on the big end. He just never saw him. It had nothing to do with reading the defense, he just kind of started to look over here, felt him going and assumed that he was going to take a different path. He has to see him. That’s his job, to see him, but he’s understanding coverages. He sees every coverage known to man from our defense. That’s helped him, but there’s always room for improvement.”

On whether there were two interceptions where he didn’t see a defender…

“The one down on the red zone, he never saw Brandon Spikes. That’s a red zone rule. When you’re throwing something like that down there, because most people will play a split-safety zone defense where they’re all back there, we have a rule. It’s called a crossbar throw, where you try to put it up high, (towards the) crossbar obviously, because that’s the level you want to throw it. (That is) why a guy like Braylon (Edwards) is a dangerous target down there. He just never saw him, so he never though he had to put that much air under it and it was intercepted. The difference with there was that one was a hard-run action. If you see him, he kind of took his eyes off of it to make a fake, whereas the other one, he needs to see because it was a drop back pass and his eyes are downfield the whole time.”

On if he thought Edwards was well-covered on that play even without Spikes intercepting it…

“We were in cut splits. If he’s going to make the throw, he has to make a crossbar throw. That way, you make sure nothing happens. I think if you go back and look at it, on second-and-eight or nine, LT (Tomlinson) probably would’ve been a nice outlet underneath for him.”

On if that play was similar to the touchdown pass to Dustin Keller at Miami in Week Three…

“It was very similar, not the exact play, but very similar. It was the exact play that he hit (on) the opening play against Minnesota. The first play of the game, he hit Braylon (Edwards) for about 35 yards or something. (That) was the exact same play.”

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