NYJ Preseason Week 2 Post Game Press Conference
by k1ngm0j1 | 4 years ago | 0 Comments
Welcome everyone, I will start this off here talking about the game. I think we looked a lot better tonight then we did last week. The first team was really clicking. I thought Lev was fantastic tonight, Sam found him on 2 separate occasions for touchdowns through the air. Defense got things started early, Q made a great play to beat his man & get the strip sack. Wake showed that veteran awareness we are looking for to scoop & score.
Sam was night & day from last week. He had 2 touchdowns & 1 interception, and the interception was a really great play by the Detroit cornerback. The offense had good rhythm, anytime you can start with a 14 play 96 yard drive after a great punt pinned us that deep you're probably going to have a good day. The defense stepped up in the first half to help us hit halftime up 21-10.
The second team played tough today as well, both La'Mical Perine & Frank Gore both punched in short yardage touchdowns for us and the defense did enough to hold onto the lead. We did have two injuries this game, the first being Center Connor McGovern, who the training staff tells me his X-rays came back positive for a broken thumb. He is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks, which is a big blow to the offense. This oline has been clicking & he is obviously the anchor in the middle, tough injury to suffer. The second injury was La'Mical Perine suffered what we think is a tear in his abdomen, he will go for an MRI tomorrow morning to confirm. Right now the doctors are saying he will be out anywhere from 5-7 weeks while that heals. Really unfortunate because hes been having a great camp & a great preseason. He has 25 carries for 99 yards this preseason & had the touchdown today. He was certainly earning himself more playing time.
A little roster housekeeping that was done following the game:
We have released WR Josh Bellamy, LT Conor McDermott, MLB James Burgess, OLB Kyle Phillips, RG Josh Andrews and WR Josh Malone. We have also agreed to 1 year deals with the following players: LT Marshall Newhouse, WR Jaron Brown, K Stephen Hauschka, RB Bilal Powell and C Daniel Kilgore.
With that I will open it up to questions.
With the injuries suffered tonight, will the team be looking to bring in other players to help out or is the team satisfied with the guys that were just added?
We are always looking at who is available and doing our due diligence to upgrade at all times. That being said I really like what some of these guys bring to the table. Brown has played in the league for a while & has done more then proven himself. Kilgore is a big guy with a bully mentality, just what we want on our oline. Then we were able to bring back Bilal Powell, long time Jet & someone the fans here have come to love and admire during his tenure here. We know what we have with Powell & he will make a great addition to the runningback room.
Sam looked to be a lot more comfortable this week and was really in control of the offense. What was the biggest change from last week to this week?
Yeah Sam is going to keep getting better every week, the more reps he takes in practice & in these preseason games will only make him better. We did sit down this week & go over our playbook. We made a considerable amount of changes to get us both on the same page. We both agreed that the best version we have seen of Sam was in New Orleans, so we decided to get back to some of those things we ran there that let him be successful. The whole offense really has seemed to buy in. It will allow me to get more creative as a play caller & allow these guys to show what they can really do.
You now have two kickers on the roster with the signing of Hauschka. There is clearly going to be a kicker competition these last two games, is this a fair battle or was this move made to push Maher a little?
Its absolutely a fair competition, Maher has been perfect so far in the preseason but we did see some inconsistency in practice & our scrimmages. Through their career Hauschka has a more accurate foot but Maher is capable of hitting the longer kicks. It comes down to how they both kick at Metlife. The wind here in New Jersey swirls around that stadium & makes it tough to kick. We want to make sure we have the right guy to kick through all the wind & also keep it down the middle. Its something we will monitor as we finish out the preseason.
Everyone in the building seems to be really high on Le'veon Bell right now, but he isn't getting any love around the league. Is this a guy people are really sleeping or is that just a little bias since he's who you have?
Oh believe me I am biased about all 53 of my guys who make that opening day roster, we are going to do things the Jet way and I have no doubts in our locker room. But honestly, everyone is sleeping on Lev. He is just such a dynamic guy, there rent many players like him. He is obviously a great running back but he does so much more. His blitz pickup are great, he has such good vision & understands the concepts of each play so well it really helps the whole offense. He also runs routes really crisp & clean for a running back, and then he has really good hands. We can move him all over & create mismatches all over the field. I honestly think at the end of the season Le'veon Bell will be in the running for Offensive Player of the Year. I am really looking forward to watching him work this season.
Alright I want to thank everyone for showing up to the post game press conference, I look forward to seeing you guys next week at MetLife for our game vs Pittsburgh.