New York Jets coaches and players discuss their upcoming game against the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football.
On playing the Patriots on Monday Night Football...
"Listen, it's great energy, it's amazing. It's Monday night football, but at then end of the day it is another game, another opportunity. My biggest objective is to go in and play as hard as I can with my teammates, rally with my teammates and play a good game. This is what we play for to get a W."
- Jets Defensive Lineman Folorunso Fatukasi
"Obviously everyone wants to win. That's why we're in this business. That's why we're professional football players. We got here by winning football games. For us, we've just got to put our heads down and go back to work. I feel like if we do that, we can win this game and worry about the next when it's up."
- Jets Quarterback Sam Darnold
"I think in this league you've got to take it one game at a time. It's obvious that our season hasn't really gone the way that we planned, but that's the battle of the NFL. Sometimes that's going to happen, and obviously it's happening way too much. We're not executing the way that we want and we're losing too many games. For me, I've got to play smarter and I've got to play better. But at the same time, it's about getting better every single day and improving. I feel like if we stay focused that way, we'll continue to do that. We'll continue to get better and see improvements every day. We've just got to win one. If we win one, who knows. So, that's our goal is getting better every day."
- Jets Quarterback Sam Darnold
"The Patriots - It's like they said at Alabama and they say it in the NFL - it's great to go against the best. It's always fun to go against the best. If you want to be the best you've got to beat the best."
- Jets Tackle Mekhi Becton
On Cam Newton...
"When guys haven't played Cam before, they don't realize how big he is, how strong he is and that he's faster than what you realize. When he gets green grass, he can go. He has to play in a phone booth quite a bit himself and the times that I've seen him get in the open field, it becomes an issue."
- Jets Head Coach Adam Gase
"I think even at the beginning of the year, I think they were figuring out their passing game, what was best to do there. I thought there was some games he played really well in. The Seattle game, watching him in that one, some impressive things occurred in that game and I thought he played his (tail) off in that game. I mean he really helped them and gave them a chance to win that thing. The last couple games I think he's just trying to get back into that rhythm. I know he was on the COVID list and he missed a couple weeks there. I think anytime that you miss a couple weeks in-season, sometimes it takes a second to kind of get your rhythm back. It's really been problematic for other teams when he's run the ball. They're doing the zone read stuff. When he's pulling it down and scrambling and creating first downs that way, that's been problematic. He's hit some good throws in some tight windows. I think it's just we have to make sure that he doesn't get in a great rhythm. That's the last thing you want to have happen with him. I've played him a few times in the past when he was at Carolina. I've seen him get really hot, and that's the last thing you need. If he gets in a great rhythm that's when it gets really scary."
- Jets Head Coach Adam Gase
On defending against the Patriots offense...
"They're going to do all kinds of stuff [in the run game], but then you have to be ready for the play action off of that. You have to be very disciplined. It's a different style of football we're going to be playing than last week. Last week it was playing a track team. This week it's more guys who necessarily aren't speed guys. It's going to be more completions underneath. We're not going to have the threat of explosive plays. You have to tackle well because that's how they get those big chunk plays. They get a guy open, you miss a tackle and they get more yards."
- Jets Head Coach Adam Gase
On the Patriots defense...
"The biggest challenge we're going to have is that we're going to see a ton of man coverage, we'll see a ton of press. We'll see a ton of zero [blitzes]. They don't play with any fear. These guys will come up on the line of scrimmage, challenge our receivers. They're going to load the box up, make us throw it. They're going to make us beat them outside. We're going to have opportunities. We're going to have man to man, we're going to get press. It's all going to be about whether we win our one-on-one matchups."
- Jets Head Coach Adam Gase
