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**B:** No change in the injury report. We are just continuing our preparations on the Jets. We talked about this the last time we played them, but they have a pretty extensive package and it is a lot to get ready for. One thing we have been doing obviously is spending more time in the red area on both sides of the ball. It seems like that is paying off, but that was a big factor in the first game. We were in the red zone six times and scored one touchdown. The last couple of weeks we have been in the red zone six times and I think we scored five touchdowns or whatever it is. Hopefully we can continue to be productive in that area, such a critical area and also do a good job on the defensive side of the ball. That is the main focus for the day other than that it is just Jets.
Q: Sure you don't want to add a few guys to the injury report?
B: That's all we can find.
Q: How about theirs are you preparing for fifteen guys maybe playing?
B: I think most of those guys are probable aren't they? I'm sure they will be there.
Q: You say that they have an extensive package is that because you are just aware more of what they do than other teams?
B: No they show it. Offensively they use five different personnel groups and then a lot of formations with those five groups so 30 to 35 formations times five you are easily into the hundreds just on formations alone not getting into all of the plays. They do a lot of different things. They use motion a lot so the formation isn't created until right at the end. You don't get to see it all the way at the beginning of the play and then a wide variety of plays that go with them so they are a very extensive offensive package. Defensively, based out of the thirty-four, but they play some four man line and then play some combinations off it. They do quite a bit of blitzing with the four linebackers, different combinations two outside, two inside, two strong, two week, mix in some safety blitzes. So they are pretty diverse package and a lot of the things we have seen because we have worked against each other, but when you fit it into a game plan it is a heavy preparation week.
Q: Is your package diverse as well, is it similar at all?
B: Not at this point, not to the degree that they have them in there.
Q: Is that because they are three years into it?
B: I think that is the main reason.
Q: Why do we really need an injury report at all?
B: It is not my idea believe me, I don't know. We are told to give one and we give it and I guess if it is not accurate you get fined pretty substantially for not making it accurate, so they tell us to do an injury report, we do it. If they told us not to do one we wouldn't do it.
Q: Some of it is shall we say fairly obviously subjective and in the great scheme of things why do we really need one? Show up Sunday if a guy doesn't play it is either a coach's decision or he is too banged up and you find out Sunday at one?
B: Right, right well I guess that has to do with the wagering on pro games or whatever. That is really not my field. I am just trying to coach the team. I don't have much to do with making the rules, just try to play by them.
Q: Do you pay attention to other teams injury reports?
B: It's not anything we have any control over.
Q: But if they list them as questionable…
B: What does that mean?
Q: Do you ever believe the other team's injury report is the question?
B: I think if the guy is out and it is documented that he has had surgery or he has sustained a substantial injury that is one thing. Everybody has bumps and bruises, I mean every team could probably list 30 guys on that report if they wanted to. It doesn't effect our game plan too much.
Q: It looks like some guys want to?
B: You would have to ask the teams that put out the report I can just tell you what we do. We have a couple of guys that are questionable and it looks like everybody else will be ready to go.
Q: I would think it would be to your advantage to put all kinds of guys on it, "Look at the job this guy is doing they are all beat up?"
B: Maybe we will do that one week.
Q: Do you buy the reports out of New York that Vinny (Testaverde) is practicing and everything is okay and he took part in a whole day of practice yesterday?
B: Believe me I don't know I wasn't there.
Q: But you are preparing for both guys?
B: Yes we are. We are preparing for both quarterbacks and we are preparing for everybody. We are preparing for the other guys that are on there questionable too, (Jason) Ferguson and whoever else it is. They'll be there.
Q: At some point do you have to guess which one is going to play and which one isn't and spend more time on that guy?
B: We can't control it, it is not our decision. We have to be prepared for any players on the 53 to be active. Obviously you place your bets from week to week as to which ones you are going to prepare a little bit more for than the other ones. Since Ray (Lucas) played all but one play against Pittsburgh it is pretty clear that there is a better than normal chance that he would play this week. Better than normal than other weeks where you prepare for both quarterbacks, but in the end we could get either guy for one play or the whole game. We can't control it so we are not going to sit here and flip pennies and see which guy we think it is going to be. We will just prepare for both of them and whichever one we get, we get.
Q: Do you spend a little more time on Ray because you already played them once with Vinny?
B: We spend time on both of them. There is only so much time you can spend on the quarterback anyway. I mean there are a lot of other things you have to address. You have to address the other personnel on the field and you have to address the scheme, the plays that they are actually running and how you are going to defend them regardless of who is running them. So that's where our preparation is. There is an element of the quarterback preparation, but there is more to it than that and once we've done that we have already done it with both guys. As we watch the tapes this week and when we see Pittsburgh we are going to see Ray Lucas in there. When we see Tampa for a couple of series we are going to see Ray Lucas in there the rest of the time we are going to see Vinny. Every time there is a play up there on the screen we are working on one guy or the other.
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**Q: Last year when you were there how much difference was there depending on who was on the game was there much adjustment when you knew Ray was going to play the second half?**
B: It was really an entirely different situation last year. Ray had never played quarterback for any substantial length of time. He had only played sporadically in preseason a quarter here a quarter there and when Vinny got hurt Rick Mirer was the quarterback for however many games it was four or five games, six games I can't remember, but he was the quarterback in there for a period of time. Then there was a transition that was made from Rick to Ray. Ray started eight or nine games last year and won a bunch of them, won six or seven whatever it was. He is coming into this year in a lot different situation, plus he played in preseason. He got a couple of games in preseason. He had a couple of games in preseason where he was really the starting quarterback in the ones where Vinny wasn't able to play I think it was two games this preseason. So he is coming into the game a lot differently then he came into it last year when it was a transitional thing from Rick to Ray and I don't think anybody really knew what Ray could do. I think now everybody has a lot better idea. Both their opponents and the Jets themselves have a lot better idea what his strengths are as a quarterback.
Q: How is (Eric) Bjornson doing?
B: Good, he is doing all right.
Q: Has there been any change in his game since the beginning of the season? I know he is not a real physical tight end.
B: Right, I think offensively I think pretty much everybody's game has improved incrementally as we have been able to practice more, work more together, play regular season games and tighten up some screws and there is still plenty of work to do. I think Eric is doing thing better than he was doing them at the end of training camp, but I would say that about just about everybody on that unit and we are functioning better together. No matter how good eight or nine guys go out and do it there is still so much teamwork and cooperative play involved that it is not just about one guy doing it well it is about him working with three or four other guys and getting it done correctly.
Q: Is he a reasonably decent blocker?
B: Yes he has decent size he's 6' 4", 240 and he has long arms. It is one thing to be able to get up and get on a linebacker and sustain on him in space; it is another thing to drive a 290-300 pound guy off of the line of scrimmage. That is not really his thing, but in terms of being able to block a linebacker and stay active on him and stay in position where they guy can't make the tackle those are things that he can do.
Q: Can you talk about the running back situation, I know you talked about managing the position how do you tend to use one versus the other, (J.R.) Redmond and (Kevin) Faulk what is the strength of one, what is the strength of the other?
B: The way that we try to use them, you look at the offensive game plan and if you are not going to play one guy on every single play of the game then you try to find the best way to practice and the best way to spread it so that you get the breakup that you want and you get the players doing the things that you want in the right division. For example there are a couple of different ways you could do it. You could play one guy one quarter and the next guy the next quarter if you think that it really doesn't matter given the game plan and the formation and all of that. You could do it by personnel groups so for example when one group of players goes in this guy goes in with them and if another group of players goes in this guy goes in there. You could do it by down and distance you could play one guy on third down and one guy on first and second again dependent on how much you want to play them and what you want to use them for and we have done both. It was the same thing on defense last week Larry (Whigham) and Tebucky (Jones) both played free safety. Tebucky played, I forget the exact number but I want to say Tebucky played 41 plays and Larry played 52 plays or something like that. Who started, who did this, who did that, in the end one guy played 50 plays and the other guy played 40 plays. We felt like that was a pretty good breakup for that game because both players were able to play and contribute and be a big factor on special teams. Whether it is running back, free safety, receiver if you want to split then you try to divide it evenly. If you want two thirds and one third then you might find a little different way to split it up.
Q: Does Redmond have an advantage at something over Faulk?
B: No I think Kevin has an advantage at pretty much everything at this point just given his level of experience and the fact that he has done a lot more things than J.R. has done. But J.R. is making good progress and I think that Kevin can get better don't get me wrong, but I think that his rate of improvement has gone pretty far. His experience, he is an intelligent kid, he works hard, he has got good ball skills, he's a tough guy so I think he does what he does and he does it fairly well. I am not sure that his performance is going to double at any time soon. Redmond on the other hand is on the upswing. I don't know, maybe we have seen the best we are going to see of him, maybe he is going to get a lot better, maybe it will fall somewhere in between I don't know, but Redmond's rate of improvement is at a different rate then I think Kevin's is. I think Kevin right now has an advantage over all of our backs.
Q: How did Adrian do?
B: He did okay. He hasn't played in a long time. He is not really in football condition. You can run around a track all you want it is not like playing football. I think that the more he played yesterday, the more he practiced it looked better at the end then it did at the beginning until he kind of ran out of gas. That is probably the way it is going to be for awhile. The more he does the more the rust will come off and the better his conditioning will get. That is not at a real high level right now, but hopefully that will improve. I am sure it will with some game, not game but practice contact, putting on all the pads and all of that.
