(Opening statements) "We knew going into the game yesterday that the Jets were
the kind of team that would force you to out-execute them if you wanted to go
in and beat them in their home stadium. There is a reason that they have know
won nine football games. I look at the Jets team and they have an excellent team.
They do all the things well that winning teams do. They are plus-15 in the takeaway-giveaway,
they don't turn the ball over very much and they run the ball extremely well.
The way the game worked out yesterday played into their hands in the second half.
They got their run game going against us. They are averaging over 150 yards per
game running the football. They are one of the top five teams in terms of fewest
penalties. They are the type of team that forces their opponents to beat them.
They don't beat themselves.
"That being said, I think we went in and out-executed them in the first half. We had one touchdown. We kept them out of the end zone. They had two field goals. We ran 29 plays for 154 yards. They ran 27 plays for 146 yards. We converted four of our six third downs and they converted two-of-five. Going into the locker room at halftime we felt pretty good. We felt we left some things out there on the field. We had a 60-yard touchdown run called back. We had a shot at Andre up the field with the ball in the end zone. My feeling was that if we could go out and make some of the plays that we had and continue to play the way that we were, we'd be in good shape.
"Unfortunately, the second half was a totally different story. We stop them on defense, and give them credit, their punter hits a 50-yard punt. It was an excellent punt that hit down around the 2-yard line. We started our first possession on the three. We don't convert on third down and now we're punting out of the end zone. Chad hits a tremendous punt, with great coverage. We tackled Moss at the 50-yard line and unfortunately, we have a holding penalty. Over the years, I know I have certainly not had good experience when you have to punt a second time. Normally, if something bad happens, and especially if you're having to back up and punt a second time with your back right to the end line, Unfortunately, (Moss) took that ball and took it down to the 4-yard line. It took them two plays to score and that's what set the tone for the second half.
"We battled in the third quarter. It was still 13-7 into the third quarter. It got away from us a little bit in the fourth quarter. When you look at our execution and the consistency of our execution, it wasn't there in the second half. The numbers are a bit skewed. First downs are clearly in their favor, run offense is tremendously in their favor, we didn't convert our third downs in the second half like we did in the first half. (We didn't do) all those things you have to do to win and play for 60 minutes to beat a good football team.
"The way the game went, once they got the lead, it played into their hands because they were able to run the football and put us in a two-minute situation with nine minutes to go in the game. With where we are right now, that's certainly not one of our strengths when we become a one-dimensional team or have to throw the football. We liked playing the way we did in the first half. I felt good about our run game in the first half. I think we're making progress in the run game. Because of the score, it took us out of those situations where we can now have either-or situations, and it became more of a one-dimensional game. We've all seen, in this league, that when it gets to be that way, it's hard to get that momentum swung back your way. That's exactly what happened.
"You have to go out and play for 60 minutes to beat a playoff-caliber team. I consider the Jets a playoff-caliber team. Our job is to figure out how we can go out and put four quarters together. I've seen our team play very well for a quarter, two quarters, three quarters, and even if you look at the game yesterday, it's 13-7 at the end of the third quarter. But in the fourth quarter they scored two touchdowns and a field goal. They were able to take control of the ball by running the football.
"Our challenge is to execute with more consistency. We certainly got off to the kind of start we wanted, in terms of the first half. It was going to be a big task to win there. They were getting their quarterback back, they were coming back home, they had a lot of momentum and they knew this was an important game. I think our guys prepared and we knew this was an important game. The unfortunate thing was that we were not able to finish it off.
"Where does that leave us now? We are three quarters of the way through the season.
We have four games to go, starting with a big division game this weekend against
the Colts. Our challenge is to see if we can play our most consistent football
and see if we can do it for 60 minutes. We've done it in segments, be we haven't
done it or been able to finish things off. I looked two weeks ago, we scored 21
points and don't give up anything in the second half. Yesterday they scored 23
and we don't score any. That's kind of where we are right now. That's a challenge
to our players, a challenge to our coaching staff and we know we have the ultimate
challenge with the Colts coming in and Peyton Manning and their offense this week."
