Following the Jets 17-3 win over the Giants head coach Rex Ryan addressed the media. Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.
Opening statement…
MetLife Executive Vice President Mike Farrell- A hard-fought victory. Congratulations. For the inaugural Met Life Bowl, I’m very pleased to present to you a check for the (Trust) for Public Land in the amount of $40,000 and this will go to developing parks and open spaces throughout the country. So congratulations and on behalf of our 66,000 associates worldwide and our fantastic icon Snoopy, I’m pleased to present you with this beautiful trophy for this first MetLife Bowl at the new stadium, MetLife Stadium.
Rex Ryan-Thank you very much. This is awesome. I’ll tell you what. This thing looks good, I’m glad we got it. I don’t know if there are any tickets available to that December 24th game, but I think we just sold them because that was a typical Jets-Giants slugfest right there. That’s a fun game. That’s two good football teams going at it. Obviously, it’s a preseason game, but it is great competition, there’s no doubt and the fireworks will fly come December 24th, that’s for sure. I was proud of the way our guys challenged them in the red zone. We had been talking about it. We were two-of-three and we had that holding call which was unfortunate and then the Giants were zero-for-three in the red zone. When that happens, you’re going to win a lot of games. So I was proud of that. We got the two take-aways, so I think that was the difference in the game. Obviously it was a hard-fought game to say the least.
On if the time off led to a sluggish offensive start…
(Ryan) Justin Tuck might have had something to do with that, I wouldn’t say that. You’re going against good competition and things. It was a grind, that’s for sure.
On the starting offense…
Well, obviously we struggled to say the least at first, but then I thought we picked it up. It’s unfortunate we had that penalty on that third and two to open up the second half. We had a good drive going then. We finished the deal at the end of the first half. Games are going to happen like that (when) you go against a good defense, and certainly the Giants have a good defense.
On if the Giants game-planned to try to stop Plaxico Burress…
I have no idea, you’d have to ask them.
On having Burress, Santonio Holmes and Derrick Mason on the field for the first time in a game…
We will be working a lot in practice, but I was pleased with the way we came out in the second half in particular. We had that drive, we were going to take out the starters on both sides of the ball, but we only had 20-some plays in the first half so that’s why we left them in it for another drive. I liked the way that we moved the football, it was just unfortunate we had that penalty. Wayne (Hunter) feels terrible about it. This is an emotional game, but you can’t hurt the team. It was great though, the emotions were great. It was great competition, that’s what we knew it would be.
On Logan Payne’s injury…
He had a wrist injury. Sorry about that but that is about as good as I can do. (joking) He never returned so I don’t know what it is exactly.
On Mark Sanchez…
I thought at times, he threw the ball really well. He had a couple balls tipped, things like that. I was happy with the way Mark played. He avoided the rush, they get after the quarterback pretty well. He was able to avoid the rush a little bit and ran the ball some so I was happy to see that.
On if he put Antonio Cromartie back as a kick returner to create a spark…
No. We were going to get one rep in the preseason with Cromartie back there. It would have been (a little) easier had he not dropped the ball initially.
On if he will consider using Cromartie more as a kick returner this season…
Well as far as Dallas is concerned, he will not be our returner. (joking)
On the running game…
Well I thought it was good. I thought Joe (McKnight) ran the ball well. I think Shonn [Greene] had some good runs so I don’t necessarily look at that as who they are rushing with. I was happy with the number of attempts we had. That is the one I always look at. We had a bunch of them. It says here we had a bunch. 38, so 38 rushing attempts. You combine that with completions, if you’re leading that category at the end of the game- that stat- then you generally fare pretty well.
On the Muhammad Wilkerson ejection…
I can understand it because I think both guys swung at each other. Our guy swung second. He swung hard but he swung second.
On the play of David Harris…
I thought it was good. David had a couple of big hits and that’s what David can bring to the table. If you want to cross that middle a little bit, you do it at your own risk. He is a big hitter. I thought he did a good job. That big back (Brandon Jacobs) was running hard, I like to see that. It was fun. That was a football game today.
On creating take-aways during the preseason…
That’s more than we got last year in the regular season. That’s good. That’s what it should be. Tipped balls and overthrows, those are where you get your picks and rush the passer, make him elevate his throws and that is good to see.
On what he saw from the third-down offense…
Well, not much. One-for-eight. That says not too good. Sometimes that happens. The Giants are one of the best third down defenses in the league. They were better than we were last year. Perry Fewell did a nice job with those guys. I tell you, they look the part. You see those big safeties, (Antrel) Rolle, does a nice job at nickel. He’s a good player.
On if the starters will play Thursday…
No. Do you want the truth? Probably not. How is that? You guys can look into that any way you want but I would say absolutely not. You are going two days rest after they played a half, I think that is probably the smartest thing to do.
On the touchdown pass from Mark Sanchez to Santonio Holmes…
I thought it was great. We threw it to the right guy down there, Santonio. Off a nice, hard play-action pass when you’re running the ball well, those things work. Mark delivered a strike in there. And since this is the last question, I’m happy that we had the MetLife Bowl here. I would say (it’ll be) in our trophy case, but that’ll be on my desk.
On if Sione Pouha had a setback that kept him out of the game…
Not really. That knee, it was just one of those things where it was like, ‘You know what, we don’t need him to play.’ We have those two young guys that we’re trying to see what they can do. He still has a little swelling in the knee. But if it was a regular season game, we would have played him. We’re holding him back. I wanted to see those two nose tackles against a good center.