Mike Pettine Interview Transcript 10/14/11

On Friday New York Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine addressed the media.  Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.

On what he anticipated from the Patriots on their last drive last week and what they did differently…

In having studied them in the past, it wasn’t one where we felt we were going to get a steady diet of run. It was to their credit, they hit some runs. They got them out to midfield and they got a chance to get some heavier people on the field and make it hard to substitute. It was just kind of a pick your poison thing. We were in a couple of calls and (had) just slight errors, it was an indication of the way that day was going. A lot of the times you’ll have 10 guys doing the right thing and one guy not. It seemed that they found that one guy, the play found that one guy every time. Whereas you have other games, you get a guy that’s not on point and you end up getting a sack, an interception, a tackle for loss. It was a combination of things. To do it over again, in hindsight, you’d probably want to heavy it up a little bit more and dare him to throw it. Daring Tom Brady to throw probably isn’t the best way to try to get off the field, so that was that last drive.

On Rex Ryan planning on getting back to “alignment, assignment and technique”…

It’s just basics. Do your job and good things will happen. Part of the ability to do your job, is to know your job. So, “Okay, what’s my alignment? What’s my assignment?” And then, “What technique am I playing?” It was something that we had a lot of guys who have been playing well. I was upset after the game after we watched the tape and addressed the players the day after. We probably wasted Mike DeVito’s best performance of his career. (He) did an outstanding job, and that kind of got lost in the mix. So, we need to be more consistent. Some guys are playing at a high level and (we have) other guys that are hit and miss. I think if we can raise our level of consistency, I think we’ll get back to where we need to be.

On what stood out about DeVito’s performance…

Just every play was plus after plus. It’s not like he was going against that was kind of an unknown guy. He was up against (Logan) Mankins and just did an outstanding job against him.

On Jamaal Westerman’s performance against New England…

He’s improving. As we talked about with Jamaal, we just felt that if he got some more game experience, that he would show what he could do. He’s another one that needs to work on consistency a little bit more, but he did grade out fairly well. He did have one mistake on the pressure where Kyle Wilson got called for the penalty, that he was a little slow to react. He was the guy who was unblocked and was slow to react to it, where he should have been full speed. That ball never should’ve gotten off, it should’ve been another sack. But we’re pleased with Jamaal. He’s come a long way for us and it’s credit to him, that he’s very coachable, one of the hardest working guys down in the weight room and it’s showing on the field.

On whether Westerman needs to improve in run defense…

Some of it with him is physics. He’s a smaller outside backer. You go from a Bryan Thomas, who’s 265, 270 pounds, where you’re looking at Westerman, where he’s given up a little bit from a weight standpoint. So, his technique is what he needs to rely on out there. There’s some things with that that he needs to clean up. He’ll only get better with the game experience.

On Donald Strickland’s status this week and whether Marquice Cole would play in his place…

Correct, yeah, and we have four multiple packages, and Strick’s (Donald Strickland) been limited. So, again, it’ll come down to, I’m not sure, whether he’ll definitely go or not, but we’ll be ready to go either way.

On whether Kenrick Ellis will make his debut this week…

I think it’s looking that way. This is a team that we feel is going to try to establish the run. It’s a pretty good offensive line we’re going against. Again, not sure of Ropati’s (Pitoitua) availability, so I could see this being the week. He’s certainly getting the reps in practice. That decision hasn’t been made, but he’ll be ready to go if he gets the call.

On what they saw from Jason Taylor last season…

We really haven’t had a chance to watch him (this season). He was great for us to have and we’ve talked about this before, where sure he was productive and he found ways, that was what JT (Taylor) did. He made big plays at big times for us. You look at the first New England game here, where he caused the sack, (with the forced fumble) at the end of the game. The Pittsburgh game with the safety. He just made some big plays for us. Just kind of the hidden effect, he was really good for our room, especially with our young outside (line)backers and our young pass rushers, just (in terms) of being a professional, how to prepare for an opponent and how to prepare for a particular offensive line. Understanding protections, just a lot of the little nuance stuff of rushing the passer he did a real good job of it.

On correcting the penalties…

Again, as we’ve talked about before, we submit and we get them back (the penalties that were called). So some of the ones, we don’t coach them any different based on the report we get back from the league. The other ones, it’s practice habits, where we have the officials at practice and we tell them to be super hard on us. And if they see a penalty, they’ll throw it. A lot of it, it’s practice habits, you can’t really just point to one thing from a technique standpoint, but it’s certainly something that we’ve talked about.

On the penalty called on Donald Strickland when he was defending Aaron Hernandez last week…

No comment. We send (all the penalties) in. At the end of the day, the balls in the air, and I think what the league prefers is the defender going for the football. I think if you are not going for the football, you’re putting yourself at high risk of getting a penalty.

On the long pass to Wes Welker…

It was a good call by them. They set it up, it was a run-action fake, a run they had run earlier in the game. We were a step or two slow on the back end.

On Matt Moore…

He’s a guy who has some game experience, obviously started some games at Carolina. He’s big, he’s very athletic. The thing that worries us is his ability to run with the ball. It’s obvious that it’s being coached down there. Chad Henne really made some big plays for the Dolphins this year scrambling, averaging eight yards a carry. He’s a guy, that depending on your coverage, you have to account for the quarterback. He’s very mobile. It has helped us to have Kevin O’Connell here, who was down there camp who gave us some insight on Matt Moore and some of the things that they are doing down there, so that was helpful. He’s a confident kid, he can make all the throws and he’s certainly not anyone that we are going fall asleep on.

On whether or not film can be too old to tell you about a player…

We didn’t really go back and look at (Moore’s) Carolina stuff. We had enough between this year’s preseason and he got some quality reps in the San Diego game.

On if he is hopeful that Brandon Marshall will follow through on his comments to get ejected…

I shook my head when I saw that one. As long as it is not a one-for-one trade, he can go right ahead.

Tyson Rauch

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