How do you write about the Jets after they mail in a performance like they did on Sunday? When you run a blog, you have to write. Seriously though, what can you say about this team right now that won’t induce vomiting? I was unfortunate enough to have season tickets during the Rich Kotite years and I have to say it feels similar right now. This Jets team actually has more talent because they have a quarterback. Most of the other talent is injured on the sideline. There is no excuse though for the depths to which this team has sunk this year.
Since there isn’t much to say let’s talk about Adam Gase.
Adam Gase spoke to the media today about his job security and how the Jets can improve after the 1 and 7 start.
On what makes him believe they can get things right at 1-7…
I think the fact that the locker room is doing a good job of sticking together and focusing on coming here and putting in the work, and taking the critiques, and making sure they’re finding ways to communicate better and get better everyday at practice. These guys are working hard to really turn things around, and that’s the number one thing for us is those guys really nailing down, focusing on getting better every day, not worrying about what happened the week before, improve from the week before, correcting mistakes that we make, but move on. I think they’ve done a good job putting the practices together, we just have to do a better job on game day.
On what happened during the shotgun snap at the end of the game and how much of his coaching/play-calling has impacted Sam Darnold over the last few games…
The only clarification I can give on the snap is, for whatever reason, we just weren’t on the same page. We had a couple guys that thought the ball was being snapped then, when it was snapped. We had a couple guys think that it was going to be on a different cadence. It’s just something that is not ideal, you don’t want ever to happen. It happened and it cost us a safety. I think it was just really, really bad timing as far as that happening because we couldn’t afford any negative plays. It’s hard for me to say that he’s taking any steps back, it’s just that we’ve got to get some of these plays cleaned up. We’ve got to make sure that we’re doing a better job of not putting ourselves in bad position and sometimes, when things are moving quick, we’ve just got to make the right decision at the right time.
On if he feels like he should’ve called timeouts during the last possession…
Looking back at that, there are multiple things I wish I would’ve done different on that drive. We were trying to keep as many timeouts as we could. I wish I would’ve kicked a field goal earlier. Probably one of those snaps, I wish I would’ve used a timeout. We went back and kind of talked through that drive and there are a couple things I wish I would’ve done different. It was kind of what they were doing, and they were getting so deep, we had to keep checking the ball down. It’s just not an ideal situation to be in. So, you’ve got to kind of do things perfect and I wasn’t really happy with the way I operated in that situation. I wish I would’ve had a couple different decisions on that drive to give us a better chance. It’s one, unfortunately, I’m going to have to learn from.
On how he feels about his job security…
It’s just something that I don’t really focus on. My job is to try to get the team prepared every week, get them ready to go, get them focused on the game that we have to play. 1-7 is not fun to go through. Things haven’t gone the way that we wanted to. It’s just that’s what happens in the NFL sometimes and unfortunately, we’re going through it right now. All I can focus on is, we’ll be better for having to go through this. It’s extremely tough. We’re going to see how tight we are as a group, coaches, players, support staff, everybody in the building and we’ve got to battle through this. We’ve got to figure out a way to dig ourselves out of this and go find a way to win a game.
On what he said to Christopher Johnson after yesterday’s game…
For me, when we lose a game I feel like I let him down and having not got us to where I was hoping we’d be at at this point. He understands that he is going to get everything I have day in and day out to try to work things out of where we are at right now and keep fighting and trying to find a way to win games.
On if he believes that the team has a lack of focus at times and if it is troubling to him…
I don’t know if it is a lack of focus. I look at it as, the penalties that we had this last game, some of them are technique issues, some of them are, we get a holding on something that we felt like we could have had guys doing things a little different way, using a little different technique. That felt like that was the first time that we had a disconnect like that when it came to our silent count with being off like that. I am not really sure that it has happened really like that before, it occasionally happens like once a year, but that was one of those ones where I was a little surprised that happened. I think its just a lot of the things that we have penalty wise are things that we can prevent ourselves, which is the fall starts, I know that we can be way better at that, illegal hands to the face, the holdings, we can clean these things up, these are technique things that we have to keep hammering out at practice and make sure that we have the right hand placement and understand how we’re getting rushed and wear our hands our going to be and we need to be in an athletic position and do the right things. The OPI that we had, that’s why we challenged it, it was just so close. Some of these things we just have to make sure that our timing is right on when we are doing things and we have to execute on Sunday, but we have to prepare for it during the week.
On if he believes he has his job security after this year from talking with Christopher Johnson…
I have never asked him that directly, I just know in all my conversations that we’ve had with him, we’ve let him know where we are at with our roster and our situations that we’ve had as far as who is moving in and out of the lineup. He knows what we are trying to do and everyday in practice and through our meetings and what we are working on to get better. We have just been talking about just getting our guys ready to go each week and updating on where we are at during practice during the week.
On if he believes he has his job security after this year from talking with Christopher Johnson…
I have never asked him that directly, I just know in all my conversations that we’ve had with him, we’ve let him know where we are at with our roster and our situations that we’ve had as far as who is moving in and out of the lineup. He knows what we are trying to do and everyday in practice and through our meetings and what we are working on to get better. We have just been talking about just getting our guys ready to go each week and updating on where we are at during practice during the week.