Rex Ryan: “We Can Play With Anybody in This League”
October 6, 2009 – 10:00 am by Jimmy Shapiro
This post was written by Chris Fedor from WKNR in Cleveland After three straight wins to start their season, the New York Jets we’re riding high with a lot of confidence. Not too many people thought that a team with a rookie head coach and a rookie quarterback would start off the season undefeated, but the Jets went into this past weekend’s game in New Orleans with an unblemished record and a little bit of a swagger. However, New Orleans proved a lot by beating the Jets at their own game. The Saints, known for their explosive, high octane offense beat New York with outstanding defensive play. Play on that side of the football that made Mark Sanchez look like the rookie that he is.
Sanchez played his worst game of his career and Rex Ryan suffered his first loss as a head coach, but still remains confident. In listening to the tone in his voice in this interview, you can tell that losing is not something he wants to get used to. The Jets will have a chance to bounce back on Monday Night Football this upcoming week against the Dolphins.
Rex Ryan joined Michael Kay on ESPN 1050 in New York to talk about suffering his first loss as a head coach, the game that Mark Sanchez had, and trying to bounce back this week against Miami.
On the play of the defense:
“We played okay on defense, but it’s a team loss all the way. There’s certainly some things that we could’ve done better on defense. I think we had a chance to really shut them down, but to New Orleans’ credit they were able to make some plays on us and unfortunately come away with a victory on us.”
On whether he can be satisfied with a 3-1 team through the quarter mark of the season:
“Not really. You step back and you look where you’re at right now. Right now we’re still on top of our division because we did win the head to head battle with New England. Win lose or draw everything we’re going to do is focus on the next opponent and not worry about looking down the road. We just have to focus on playing Miami.”
On the struggles of Mark Sanchez vs. New Orleans:
“It’s very similar to the game that Joe Flacco had last year when we played against the Titans the first game. I think he threw four picks, but it’s just one of those things you’ve got to give the opponent credit. They did a great job and made a lot of big plays. Obviously the 99 yard interception return was a killer because worse comes to worse we’re going to be tied with a field goal and then be able to kickoff. Jay (Feely) was doing a nice job with his kickoffs so you were basically putting the ball on the 20 yard line so that was a big turn. This was clearly Mark’s worst game of the year, but shoot, we just have to grow from it and learn from some of the mistakes that he made and we made as a football team and also realize that you’ve got to rely on each other. You cant just put it on your shoulders. ‘I’ve got to do this or I’ve got to do that.’ Whether I’m talking to Mark Sanchez or Kris Jenkins, we just have to go out and be part of the solution, part of the team and just rely on each other.”
On Mark Sanchez putting the loss on his shoulders:
“I know as a football team we don’t believe we lost that game because of the way Mark played. Clearly it was a team loss. New Orleans was the better team that day. It’s hard to accept, but that’s just the facts. We’ve got to find a way to tighten up what we’re doing. We know we’re a better football team than what we showed yesterday and we look forward to proving it on Monday night in front of a national audience.”
On taking some positives from the loss against New Orleans:
“I think we can definitely play with anybody. I think we proved that in the first three weeks of the season as well when we beat New England, when we beat Tennessee, who doesn’t look like the same team after we played them, and even the opener at Houston, which is not an easy place to play and I think everybody is realizing that that’s a pretty good offensive football team that we played. I know we can play with anybody in this league. It’s just a matter of going out and executing. It could’ve been a much closer game than it appeared on the scoreboard and I hate to give the opponent too much credit in saying that they were the better team yesterday, but they were. We just have to find a way to maximize who we are, get better on the practice field and go out where we can show our fans and ourselves that we’re a better football team than what we played (like) yesterday.”
Listen to Rex Ryan on ESPN Radio New York with Michael Kay (14 minutes into podcast)
Tags: AFC East, football interviews, Jets lose to Saints, Mark Sanchez, New York Jets, Rex Ryan
