Rex Ryan And Tim Tebow On The Fake Punt

Rex Ryan was asked about the Tim Tebow fake punt pass to Nick Belore.  Here is what he had to say:

On the fake punt pass…
(Coach Westhoff) Westy talked about it. We had talked about if we had that opportunity. It showed up. We got what we were looking for and Tim (Tebow) just made a great pass and (Nick) Bellore (caught it). Woody (Johnson) before the game said, “Can Bellore catch?” I said, ‘Oh yeah, absolutely,’ and I’m (thinking) ‘Oh please catch it.’ (laughter) He did a great job. We have to work on his moves. (On) that little head fake, (his) body stayed in the same direction. We have to work on that.

Here is what Tim Tebow added when the media spoke to him:

On what he saw on the fake punt…
I felt like we had a good look.  They (the offensive line) did a great job getting off the line and Nick (Bellore) was wide open.

On the importance of the fake punt…
It felt really good.  I felt like it gave us a lot of momentum and we punched it in for a touchdown.  It was a good play for us.

On how much of a gamble the fake punt was…
If it works, it’s never too big of a gamble (joking).  I guess any time you fake a punt, it’s going to be a little bit of a gamble.  Coach Westhoff is pretty gutsy and I like that.

On whether other teams will catch on to their fake punt play…
We just have to keep trying to go out there and giving different looks.  Sometimes we’ll have to play it safe, punt the ball, and don’t let them return it.  I feel like we got a lot of fair catches today, I don’t know if they returned one.  That’s pretty good when their signaling your gunners and get down there and get good field position.

On whether Nick Bellore can play receiver…
(Laughs) He’s got good hands.  I thought he had a chance to make the punt returner miss.  We’ll give him a hard time about it.

On being creative…
We have to keep being creative and keeping them off balance and have the ability to do different things when I’m at the line.

On if Bellore is his favorite receiver…
(Laughing) He was today.

On how often they worked on the fake punt in practice…
We work on it a lot. That play just got put in this week. We’ve been working on some for a while, but that was just put in.

On if there was an option to run on the fake punt…
Once I make the call, it’s just a pass.

On if he was concerned passing to a linebacker…
Did I have any concerns? No. Nick’s very trustworthy. Plus, he was so excited all week. It was fun.