HEAD COACH ROBERT SALEH
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 30, 2022
On what he could have done to help Jets QB Zach Wilson in the second half…
We'll look to the tape. We have to do better with the ball. This is a team that feasts on your mistakes. If you're just off by a hair, you're going to pay for it. Collectively, we all have to be better with the ball.
On how 'backbreaking' the penalty on Jets DL John-Franklin Myers late in the second quarter was…
Ten-point swing. It ended up being 17 if you count what happened in the second half. It was a costly penalty.
On if Wilson has to play better (improve)…
He always has to play better. The point is as soon as you step on the field, you have to play better. He has to play better and we have to find ways to help him.
On if he received an explanation on the John-Franklin Myers penalty…
Yeah. He (Mac Jones) was hit too hard.
On why Wilson is having a hard time throwing the ball away…
We have to figure it out.
On the Jets third-down defense early in the game…
They did a good job with some of the late developing concepts, crossers that ended up turning into almost screen-like…I thought the defense did a really nice job settling it down. I thought we played pretty well in the second half on defense except for that one run to start the second half, but it wasn't enough. We have to play better.
On Wilson scrambling 'going bad' today…
The line of scrimmage goes all the way around the globe in those situations, so you can throw it in the stands if you want to. We'll figure it out. We have to help him out. We have to find a way to get that fixed.
On the lack of playing time for Jets WR Elijah Moore…
With Corey (Davis) being out, just a chance to get Garrett (Wilson) on the field a little more. We'll find more opps for him to get on the field.
(follow-up) on whether it has to do with his recent (trade request)…
No.
On if he believes Wilson's first INT plagued him throughout the remainder of the game…
It would be a good question for him. You have to be able to bounce back and move on. We still go into the locker room up 10-6, but that would be a better question for him.
On why Zach Wilson has not taken that second-year jump…
The last three weeks, we've played three really, really good defenses. Obviously, we have to perform against good defenses. Denver did it again to Trevor Lawrence today. He's been playing some really good defenses., The self-inflicted wounds are what we have to get cleaned up because they're going to make it hard enough. We don't need to compound it by making mistakes that help them.
On if the John-Franklin Myers penalty was deflating…
I don't know if it was deflating. We stalled a little bit on offense. They had the good drive coming out. Credit to them. Other than that, I didn't feel like they were able to do what they wanted from a defensive standpoint. Offensively, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot and not allowing ourselves to continue drives and stack together consecutive good plays.
On how he keeps the team from getting frustrated with Zach Wilson…
We have faith in Z. He's played good football. He has taken care of the football since he's gotten back. He has shown flashes of good football, so everyone in the locker room still has his back.
On special teams mistakes today…
As I said, this is an organization that feasts on mistakes and waits for you to implode. All three phases took turns (today).
On the decision to move up Mike White and drop Joe Flacco, and if he had plans to play Chris Streveler…
As it pertains to Mike, if Zach ever gets hurt, we are giving Mike White the opportunity to go in there. We felt like, rather than just bump him all the way up, just allow him the opportunity to practice and get his mind right preparing as the second quarterback. Although you would like to think that preparing for the third quarterback, you would prepare exactly the same…there is a human element, so just allow him the opportunity to prepare as if he is the next man up.
With Streveler, we had some things going into the weekend. I'm not going to get into detail in terms of having the opportunity to get him up. You have to declare Saturday by 4 pm – you can't wait until gameday to get him up. A couple of things happened and we de-activated him.
On if Mike White will be the backup quarterback going forward…
Yes.
(follow-up) and Joe will be the third quarterback…
Yes.
On making sure Wilson does not lose his confidence…
He can't lose confidence. We have to do a better job. We have to figure out a way to help him. They are self-inflicted wounds. It wasn't anything that they did. Football is hard enough. Going against these defenses are hard enough. It's when you make mistakes that are self-inflicted that make it impossible. For Zach, he is going to figure it out. He's going to be fine.
On what went into making Mike White the backup quarterback…
Mike is a young guy. We have to figure out what we have in him if that opportunity presents itself. That's it.
On balancing Zach's development with a team that appears ready to win now…
We just have to rally around him. Coaches, we need to find a way to make it not necessarily simpler, but just help him continue to progress and evolve. He is still a young man. Playing quarterback in this league is not easy. Collectively, we have to do better for him. He just has to be able to do what he did the last four weeks in terms of just doing the simple stuff and not putting too much pressure on himself to do more than he needs to. We will continue to work with him. We have all the faith in the world in him. He just has to continue to find ways to continue to get better.
On several coaches and players speaking about wanting payback for last year's loss in New England…
Whatever you need to do to get ready fort a football game. I really don't care.
On if he feels John-Franklin Myers did something wrong…
JFM has to be better. It doesn't matter. Do something. It's 17-3 going into the locker room to 10-6 and they have the ball, lapped us, scored another touchdown. Just a critical exchange. We can say it's JFM's fault, we can blame the…it doesn't matter. It happened. At the end of the day, we just have to be better.
On what the coaching point there when you say 'you have to be better'…
Hopefully we get a good explanation on Wednesday.
On the first Devin McCourty's first INT near the Patriots sideline…
I don't understand that one, either. Hopefully, I will get a good explanation when we turn it in.
QUARTERBACK ZACH WILSON
Postgame Press Conference
Sunday, October 30, 2022
On if his first interception led to a snowball…
No, I don't let that stuff bother me. As you see, we're still moving the ball, I just had two bone-headed plays. The second interception, I really meant to throw that ball away. He closed on me faster, kind of left the ball inside. I can't mess with that. Got to sail it. And then the last one I really just wanted to make a play instead of coming off the field and I can't do that. I put my defense in a bad situation there. But no, all day, I didn't feel like I let that stuff bother me.
On where his indecisiveness came from…
The one I was trying to throw it away and just missed inside with (Matthew) Judon or whoever it was closing in on me. That was truly, I did not mean to put the ball there. The last one there was no indecisiveness. I was decisive to throw the ball, it just wasn't smart. First one, correct read, correct decision, I was hot on my right, came down to my shallow and didn't have a clear lane to him but I've got to find a way to get it to him and I tried to just touch it over there to him and just missed high. It happens sometimes but you can't let those pile up. The bad ones were the second and the third. Those are bad plays by me.
On what went through his mind on the second and third interceptions…
Every time I get out of the pocket it just gets frustrating to just throw the ball away, and that's what I've done the last four weeks to put us in a good position, to not turn the ball over, and for us to win. And so, I need to be able to keep doing that when something's not there. It gets old getting out and not seeing anything there. And it's really only the last one that I was really forcing, the one before that I was truly trying to throw that ball away but I should have thrown it away sooner before Judon got that close to me. It's plays that the Patriots didn't have any effect on. I can't do that.
On if he shoulders this loss…
No, but I need to play better.
On how this loss will impact the team's confidence…
It doesn't. We'll be good.
On the roughing the passer penalty on John Franklin-Myers
Terrible call, but that's football. It happens all the time.
On if he should have ran more…
If it was there, I wish I would've taken it, but we'll watch the film.
On where they go from here…
Yeah, we'll watch this film and learn and get better. I can get rid of those mistakes. We'll be good.
On if he feels he's on a learning curve…
Yeah, regardless of what it looks like, I feel like each game I'm learning and getting better. There are always plays I'm going to want back. There are always things that happen and sometimes you sit there and you wonder, 'Why did I just do that,' kind of thing. But it's part of football. You've got to move on. You've got to learn.
On if the Patriots did anything that they hadn't seen…
Yeah, they threw some different looks at us, but I thought we were seeing the field perfectly fine. Everything that they were throwing at us, I thought we were doing well. We've just got to eliminate the self-inflicted wounds and score.
On stats not suggesting he has taken a second-year jump…
I don't care about stats.
On if he has taken the second-year jump…
I don't look at it like that. I go one game at a time, one play at a time.
On facing the Patriots again…
We'll have these guys in two weeks.
On if he wants to play the Patriots again…
We're thinking about Buffalo now. That's the ultimate goal, but the divisional games are big so this one hurts, especially for me because of the plays that I had that I want back, of course. It's not that we're eying these guys on the schedule, we're going to play them again, they're part of our division. On to Buffalo, how can we make these corrections, and we've got a great team coming up this week.
Cornerback Michael Carter II
On how much the penalty affected the team's mentality…
I mean did it change the momentum? I mean probably, but as far as our mentality, I mean our mentality is you give us an inch and we'll defend it, so as far as it affecting our mentality and how we play as a defense, I don't think it really did that much. We just have to go back out there and stop them again.
On how disappointing it is to not end the losing streak versus the Patriots…
I mean I didn't even know it was a streak like that honestly. I think it was just an important game because it was the next game and that's the mentality. Obviously, it was a divisional opponent too, so it was a little heightened, but it's important because it was the next game that's it, so it is disappointing that we didn't pull it out, but we get two shots at it being that we're in the same division, so whenever that time rolls around again, we'll come back feeling better.
On the coverage helping the pass rush…
Yeah, shoutout the d-line and coverage and the rush working together. Glad to know they were able to get home, so kudos to them, appreciate them, they made our jobs a lot easier in the backend too, so yeah, good job overall honestly.
Defensive Lineman John Franklin-Myers
On the penalty before halftime…
They called it, my opinion doesn't matter.
On asking for an explanation on the penalty…
No, I mean an explanation isn't going to reverse the call, so we got to move on from that and play football.
On if it was hard to bounce back emotionally from the penalty…
No, I mean we had a whole other half, so it is what it is. It happened and we got to move on from that as a team. I think they did a good job of lifting me up and the team did a good job bouncing back from that.
Cornerback D.J. Reed
On how much the interception impacted the team at the end of the half…
Well, that was a very important play. I think it would've changed the whole game. I think we were up what, seven? So, it would've been two touchdowns before the half, so that was obviously very tough, tough call. MC (Michael Carter II) was winded after the play, he ran like 100 yards. I ran with him, so we were tired coming back. It was just unfortunate.
On how the defense performed today…
I thought we played well. We didn't do a great job stopping the run, but I thought as a whole defensive unit, we did good. We were in the strike zone a lot. I know we were down on the field a lot, so I thought we regrouped, we did well. When they did score coming out, I thought we did a great job regrouping, executing our game plan, I thought we played well.
On how the game impacts the team's confidence…
Oh, we're good. Like I said, today was just a turnover issue, they had more turnovers than us, so we just got to be smart with the ball. Then on defense, we have to take the ball away, which we did, but we got to get more takeaway's than the other team.
Guard Laken Tomlinson
On the penalty…
It is what it is, what happened. Some stuff happened that we could've done a lot better, but I thought we fought really hard at the end, and we had some guys make some plays at the end. The ball just didn't roll our way.
On the different energy levels between the first and second half….
It's just momentum. We execute one or two plays better and you know we'll get the momentum, but we just lost the momentum early and we just got to do a better job of recapturing that.
On how backbreaking the turnovers were…
It's very important to just forget about it as quickly as possible and just get to the next play. But we still got to take good care of the ball.
Defensive Lineman Quinnen WIlliams
On Micheal Clemons getting his first sack today…
Oh, it's amazing, anytime you get a first sack, anytime you get a sack in general, it's amazing. Nathan Shepard had a sack today, which was amazing. These guys work extremely hard, do the right necessary things to do, and it paid off definitely. Just amazing to see these guys get sacks and do the things that they want to do and get the stats that they want to have, so it's amazing to have these guys on my team, and amazing to have these guys in the room.
On losing to New England after the preparation for this week…
Losing a game in general hurts , but like you said, it's a long season. We got to get back in the film room, learn the things we did wrong, and try to do the things we did right, and change the things we did wrong.
On the defense dealing with turnovers…
We got to do more as a defense, we got to get them the ball more, we got to get sacks, forced fumbles, we got to get interceptions. We got to do more as a defense to put the offense in a better position to score points and kick field goals. So, as a defense, we got to go in and look at the film, watch the film and see where we can take our shots to do even more.
Defensive Lineman Sheldon Rankins
On if he has seen a replay of the John Franklin-Myers roughing the passer penalty…
I only saw the one they showed in the stadium. Yeah, I saw it.
On his thoughts about it…
I think my facial expression probably said everything I need to say. Look, it's a tough call, you obviously protect quarterbacks, just the world we live in. Sometimes they make that call, sometimes they don't, and they happened to make it right there, and obviously that pick-six would've been huge, but it's just kind of the way football works sometimes, we just have to be able to re-group, get some more stops, and find a way to win the game.
On how frustrating it was after the call…
Yeah, listen, that is a huge momentum-shifting play, no matter when it happens in the game, no matter any of that. Obviously, want that play to happen, to stand, it'd be a huge play for us, but can't dwell on it, happened right before the half, you still have to come out, we still have a whole other half to play. Just didn't play well enough in the second half to be able to walk away, out of here with a victory.
