Sports Radio Interviews

Jerricho Cotchery: “We’ve got to win six straight and it starts with Carolina”

After the way things started in New York, who would’ve thought that the Jets would be right here at this point in the season?  Who would’ve thought that they would be scraping and clawing just to stay out of the basement in the AFC East?  After starting out the year 3-0, New York was rolling and was brimming with confidence.  People started to call rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez the “Sanchize” and Rex Ryan was getting all kinds of praise for what he was able to do in his first season in New York.  However, after that great start, the Jets have now lost six of seven and their quarterback is playing just like a rookie as he continues to make costly mistakes.  The Jets are now sitting at 4-6 overall, they are in third place in their own division and they are fighting for their playoff lives. 

After losing to the Patriots this past weekend, it’s time for New York to regroup.  They have six games left in their season and if they don’t win out, it will be very tough for them to get a playoff spot.  And if they don’t get a playoff spot, it will be a very disappointing season for the Jets, especially given the way things started.

Jerricho Cotchery joined WFAN in New York to talk about this past weekend’s loss against New England, the inconsistent play from Mark Sanchez, and what the Jets have to do to turn things around.

On what happened this past weekend against New England:

“Initially I thought right after the game that we came out flat and we weren’t I guess as energetic.  The way we’ve been playing ball I don’t think we were in that mode.  Going back and looking at the film, we just really didn’t execute early on in the game.  Offensively, when you come out the way that we came out, you’re not going to be able to win games at all, especially down the stretch like this.  When you come out like that on offense and the defense gets a couple of stops, you’re not building any momentum in the early part of the game and I think we just have to do a better job of just coming out on offense and making some plays.”

On Rex Ryan taking a more hands on approach with the team in all phases:

“That’s cool.  It will be something different for me because since I’ve been here that’s how it’s been.  The defensive guys always stay on the defense.  That was it.  Herm (Edwards) always stayed on the defensive side and (Eric) Mangini was pretty focused on the defensive side, but I think he still tried to learn a little bit about the offense.  He wants certain things to get done on offense and I don’t blame him.  We’re coming down the stretch where we really need these games.  Basically we have to win all six.  There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it.  We gotta do everything in our power to make sure we give ourselves a chance to be successful.”

On whether he thinks the team should’ve benched Mark Sanchize in the second half against New England:

“I’m not sure.  I’m really not sure on that one.  I know coming out in the second half when we had that good drive…he’s a streaky player.  All it takes for him is making a couple of throws and he’ll be feeling good.  I think that’s what the coaching staff felt at that point.  On Friday, he hit his first two throws and missed one pass the rest of the day.  That’s just how streaky he is, so I think we were going on about that.  I don’t know.  I don’t know if that’s good or not.  I don’t know what that would do to a quarterback being pulled, but there are going to be different opinions on that.”

On Sanchez making mistakes:

“Naturally when you’re a playmaker and you make a mistake, you’re gonna try and make up for that mistake and sometimes that leads to more mistakes.  We just gotta play it careful and be careful in those types of situations.  Knowing what’s best for the team at that point.  If we’re struggling as an offense, we’re struggling, but you can’t compound that situation by trying to make plays and end up making more mistakes.  As young players, you learn in this league and everyone has been through it.  Everyone has been through it, even myself.  You have to go through a learning experience and he will learn from it.”

On whether he thinks guys are not completely focused right now:

“Not really.  I think in time it starts to show.  It’ll start to show with whoever down the stretch and we’ll be able to get those things fixed.  We’ll find those guys and whatever we have to do to get their minds right, we’ll get it done.  This is very important down the stretch.  We’ve got to win six straight and it starts with Carolina.  We’re going to put all our time and effort on Carolina and make sure we come out with a victory on Sunday.”

On how the locker room handled the loss against New England:

“Yeah, guys are really ticked off.  That one hurt us a lot.  There wasn’t any talking coming back.  There shouldn’t be, but there wasn’t any talking at all.  I know guys are ticked off at this point and we need to get this thing fixed.  We know how crazy it is.  We’ve lost six of seven games and mathematically we still have a great chance.  There’s a lot of teams out there with four losses or five losses and we are one of those teams with six losses.  A lot of us have to play each other down the stretch.  We know we still have a great shot.  We know we still have a great shot and that will allow us to go back to work and get this thing fixed.”

On whether the Patriots bombing deep on third and six upset him:

“It is but no one is going to look at it like that because it’s the Patriots.  If that was us doing that it would’ve been on the front page right away.  That’s the thing that we talk about.  They do those subtle things that no one really notices and it becomes disrespectful.  We’re the only ones seeing it because it’s happening to us.  We do those things and its right out there, but it happens.  You just gotta deal with it.”

Listen to Jerricho Cotchery on WFAN in New York with Joe and Evan 

Tags: AFC East, Jerricho Cotchery, New York Jets, NFL, Rex Ryan, WFAN