On Wednesday New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan addressed the media.\u00a0 Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets.<\/p>\n
Opening remarks\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Before we get to the injures, I know you guys are all aware that Sal (Alosi) has been suspended indefinitely. Mike (Tannenbaum), myself and Woody (Johnson) will sit down when they get back from Dallas and discuss the facts of everything. That\u2019s all I\u2019m going to say on that. The injuries, we had guys that did not practice today. James Ihedigbo (ankle and knee) did not practice today. Trevor Pryce (hip) did not practice. Tony Richardson and LaDainian Tomlinson (did not practice, but it was) not injury related, just what we do as you know. Eric Smith, out with a concussion, did not practice. Damien Woody (knee) had surgery today. (Anytime) you come out of surgery, the surgery went well. He\u2019s doing fine and did not practice. Guys that were full, Nick Mangold (shoulder), Sione (Pouha finger) and Brad Smith (hand). That\u2019s the injury report. Practice was really good today. It was good to get out there in the similar elements we\u2019re going to face when we go to Pittsburgh. It\u2019s cold out there as you guys know. Windy. I believe that (Heinz Field) is in better shape than our practice field. I think they just re-=-sodded it. Our field was kind of hard out there. I thought it was good. Our guys went out and focused. It was a good practice today.”<\/p>\n On if he\u2019s concerned that Santonio Holmes will be too emotional facing his former team\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Not really. I want him to play with emotion. I want him to play with that passion and that fire. If there is a little extra juice involved, then that\u2019s great. Santonio has been an outstanding team member here. He\u2019s a guy that really picks his teammates up. He\u2019s had a great year up until this point. He obviously had the one drop, but Santonio has had a great year for us. I know he\u2019s excited to go back and play against Pittsburgh.”<\/p>\n On if he is satisfied with what Holmes has done this year\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “He\u2019s been great here. He\u2019s done what has been asked of him. He\u2019s been great here.”<\/p>\n On Mark Sanchez and the offense going into Pittsburgh\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “This is going to be the biggest challenge yet. Clearly, we have to improve and that is a tough combination because you are going against what I think is, always in the top one, two (or) three defenses in the league when you\u2019re talking about Pittsburgh. They\u2019ve done it consistently through the years. Going to Pittsburgh is about as tough a place as there is to play, (especially) in December. We know it\u2019s going to be tough, but I think our guys will respond. I think our offense will respond (and) I think Mark (Sanchez) will respond.”<\/p>\n On why Sal Alosi would be making a decision to instruct the players on where to stand\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I wasn\u2019t aware of this going on and taking place. I don\u2019t think anybody was aware of it. I think we\u2019re just now learning some new facts that have come to light and I think that\u2019s why Mike (Tannenbaum), Woody (Johnson) and myself will sit down and discuss all the facts because that was not known. It looked, when we saw the picture or whatever, we saw the guys standing there, but I\u2019ve been coaching the whole season there (and) you guys have been watching us the whole season and I don\u2019t know if anybody ever noticed it. Certainly, it was something that I was not aware of, so I don\u2019t see how anybody else was aware of it.”<\/p>\n On if he would have instructed Alosi not to form that line if he had found out about it earlier\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “To be honest, I wouldn\u2019t have thought about it. I wasn\u2019t aware of it until I looked at other teams and thought, \u2018Oh.\u2019 I\u2019m not going to say names or whatever, (but) I did not look at those things. Like I said, it caught me off guard. I was unaware of that.”<\/p>\n On whether it was Alosi\u2019s actions or the fact that he wasn\u2019t completely truthful that is more of an issue to him\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I\u2019m certainly not anybody to judge anybody else. I\u2019ve made mistakes in my life and I\u2019ve continued to make mistakes. (I) try not to, but everybody makes mistakes and I think, when we look at the facts, we\u2019ll make a proper decision. Again, nobody is perfect.”<\/p>\n On if he talked to the defense about criticizing them after Sunday\u2019s game\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I\u2019m emotional after a game. The defense played great last week. (They held) a team to (131) yards of total offense and (gave) up five completions. They played a great game. As I\u2019ve challenged our defense before, they don\u2019t have to get in there. They don\u2019t have to score. That\u2019s where we have to tighten up. I\u2019ve talked about it before. If we would have scored 11 points and won 11-10, we would have all been happy and everybody would have felt great. If we scored six points and held them to five, we would have all been happy. Sometimes, you\u2019re going to be in games like that (where) you can\u2019t give up a score. That\u2019s the challenge to everybody. We\u2019re in the win business. The only thing we\u2019re judged on, as everybody knows, is wins and losses. Our goal is to win. That\u2019s it. The stats are what they are. We know the stats are going to say where we are at the end of the year. We\u2019ve been saying that for two years now. I know we have an outstanding defense, but we need to win. That\u2019s it. It\u2019s not ever going to be put on one side of the ball or the other side of the ball. If you\u2019re satisfied that, \u201cHey, well our side did great,\u201d you\u2019re missing the point. The point is we win and lose games together. It\u2019s our collective effort. Sometimes we may score 35 points and the defense holds them to 34, I\u2019d be happy. It wouldn\u2019t be great, but I\u2019d be happy. If we have to shut a team out and win 2-0, then so be it.”<\/p>\n On if he\u2019s concerned that there will be a division between the defense and the offense\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I was around a team for 10 years where the defense played at a super high level and if you looked at it statistically, maybe the offense didn\u2019t. (I was around the team) for 10 years, and never had a split. It\u2019s never going to split. We\u2019re going to understand that the message is we\u2019re here to win. Whatever that means, that\u2019s what we\u2019re here to do.”<\/p>\n On if he thinks the team has lost any of its swagger\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I don\u2019t know. We got beat pretty good by New England. That was a blow. (We lost) a tough game to Miami. I know one thing, we\u2019re heading to Pittsburgh and that\u2019s a tough place to play. It\u2019s as tough as it gets, going against as good a defense as there is, going against a great quarterback, a proven two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback. (They have) explosive receivers (and) a tough guy in that little guy I can\u2019t stand, who I really do like, Hines Ward. It\u2019s going to be a battle. If you plan on beating Pittsburgh, you have to bring it all and that\u2019s what we\u2019re planning on bringing.”<\/p>\n On if it\u2019s better for them to be going against one of the best teams in the league right now\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I\u2019d just assume not (laughter), but we\u2019re going to play who they put in front of us.”<\/p>\n On if Eric Smith will play on Sunday\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I don\u2019t believe he will.”<\/p>\n On what they will do at safety\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Dwight Lowery will move there full-time. We\u2019ll give him a lot of work there. We\u2019re hoping to have Dig (James Ihedigbo) back as well. If not, then (Emanuel) Cook has got to be ready to roll.”<\/p>\n On if Eric Smith has a concussion\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “I think it was on the (injury report) today as a concussion, so I\u2019m going to go with that.”<\/p>\n On playing zone defense at the goal line on Miami\u2019s touchdown reception\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “That was actually the same play we picked off when we won the game against Miami, at Miami. It was really the same offensive play and the same defensive play. I think if we would have executed a little bit better, I don\u2019t know if we would have the same questions.”<\/p>\n On if has had his weekly meeting with Sanchez today\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “It was actually Thursday when we did it, so maybe we should switch it up and have it on Wednesday (laughter). We\u2019re up for anything.”<\/p>\n On if he will consider benching Sanchez if it gives the team a better chance at the playoffs\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “That\u2019s with any player. There has been times when we\u2019ve had to pull our starting corner out. Maybe this wasn\u2019t his day or maybe he needs to watch for a little bit. That\u2019s really (the case) with anybody. I\u2019ll always do what\u2019s in the best interests of the football team. Do I think that\u2019s a real possibility? I think Mark Sanchez is our quarterback. If he really has struggled for whatever reason, would I make a move? Yes, if I thought it was the best thing for our team.”<\/p>\n On comments made by defensive players admiring the toughness of Ben Roethlisberger\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Number one, he\u2019s won two Super Bowls. We always had a (saying), \u201cTake it like a man\u201d for a sack. He\u2019ll stand back there, but you\u2019ve got to earn it. You\u2019ve got to get him down. He\u2019ll take some sacks. He\u2019s been sacked, but you\u2019ve got to earn them. He\u2019s not just going to let you (sack him). He\u2019s not going to see you coming and hit the deck like some of these quarterbacks in this league. You\u2019re going to have to put him on the deck. He\u2019s a huge man. He\u2019s strong. He\u2019s a lot better athlete than you would think a guy of that size would be. He\u2019s got escapability. In fact, those are the things that kill you. There\u2019s their offense and then there\u2019s their big-play offense. He gets out of (the pocket) and the receivers do a great job of finding ways to get open late in the down. They know he\u2019s capable of making you miss. He\u2019s had a history of burning people that way. I admire the fact that he makes you earn it. You (have) to knock him down. There\u2019s no question about it.”<\/p>\n On if he worries about the toughness of the Steelers\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n “Maybe some people will. This is a tough football team. The Pittsburgh Steelers are tough, they\u2019re physical and you\u2019re playing them in those kind of conditions with a stadium full of crazy fans. You\u2019re up against it. I\u2019ve been down that road before. We have to bring it all.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Wednesday New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan addressed the media.\u00a0 Here is the transcript courtesy of the Jets. Opening remarks\u2026 “Before we get to the injures, I know you guys are all aware that Sal (Alosi) has been suspended indefinitely. Mike (Tannenbaum), myself and Woody (Johnson) will sit down when they get back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[213,488],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-6724","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-jet-news","7":"category-jets-press-conference"},"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peLffi-1Ks","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6726,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6724\/revisions\/6726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miletestsite.com\/jets\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}