The New York Jets are coming off an awful loss last week to the San Francisco 49ers which happened right in front of their home team stadium where the fans were furious and booing.
The other day, the media grilled QB Mark Sanchez on his less than stellar performance and how he feels about the upcoming game this Monday night against the Houston Texans.
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On if Monday can come fast enough…
I don’t think so. I think everybody would rather be playing on Sunday, but that’s the way the schedule goes. We get an extra day to prepare. Unfortunately, it’s another day for that loss to sit with you, but that’s part of the game. You play long enough, sometimes those games happen, and there’s no excuse for them, so we have to bounce back.
On bouncing back from a bad day…
I think it’s just part of your personality. We have a lot of guys in here, a lot of good competitors. If you’re a good competitor, you come back. You come back swinging. You come back fighting and the only way to do that is have a great week of practice. I’m thrilled about our effort the last couple of days and we have to keep working and nail it down for Monday.
I think it’s just part of your personality. Whenever you don’t perform your best, the next game can’t come soon enough. You can’t prepare enough the next week. Whenever you make a bad throw you want to get the next one under way and make it happen. I think that’s just the way I am. I’ve been fortunate to have a great team around me. (They’re) tough guys that want to do the same thing, that want to bounce back, so it’s not like I’m alone. (If not), then it would be a lot harder. These guys want to play well right beside me, so it feels good.
On dealing with the pressure…
I think it’s just another opportunity. Nobody expects it to work. Nobody expects it to go right. Nobody expects us to win, and that’s fine. I’ve been in situations like that before. I’m confident I can handle it, and there’s only one way in my mind to go about it, and that’s really attack it. Get after it, give it 100 percent and (we) never want to look back and say ‘Man, I wish I would have done that. (We) just leave it all out there and continue to give our best effort and be as sharp as possible.
On if he feels threatened about his job…
I don’t feel threatened to lose my job at all anyway. It’s no different if it’s Tim, (Mark) Burnell, or Kellen (Clemens), that doesn’t change.
On how he can improve his accuracy…
No doubt. Have I missed some throws this year? Absolutely. When I look at the tape there’s a bunch of throws each game, a handful of them that you want back. Those are the ones I can control. The other ones after that, we have to be in the right spot. We have to keep fighting get open at the wide receiver position. (We have to) be sharp with our landmarks. I have to control what I can, and that’s meeting with these guys extra and make sure we’re on the same page so there’s no questions going into the game. They’ll be in the right spot and leave it to me to deliver the ball.
On how he prevents himself from getting frustrated…
You have to keep repping it and it’s a process. You have to keep understanding that you have to control what you can. I trust those guys to be there. I’m going to keep throwing it to the right spot and I have faith in Chaz and J.K. and Jeff Cumberland playing well. I thought Jeff played well last week. All of these guys have to step up and they’re ready for this challenge.
On having support from the team…
It’s great. I’m not being rude to anybody, but I expect that. All the work and effort I’ve put in, they know how bad I want it. When it doesn’t go right I’m the first to step up and say, ‘Hey man, that wasn’t my best and it wasn’t right. I’ll get it right.’ They understand that and it’s my job to keep pushing and leading.
On Bill Parcell’s comment that the mark of a quarterback is when things go wrong…
Absolutely. It’s easy to be the quarterback when you’ve scored 48 points or whatever we scored our first game, that’s easy. If you can’t be a quarterback then, run away now. This is the time when you’re 2-2, people think you’re about to turn the corner for the worst, and (you have to) make it better. Keep improving and keep working. It’s easy to do that when you have good leaders around me with (Nick) Mangold, (Brandon) Moore, those guys up front. I think Shonn Greene is real hungry, Bilal Powell, all of those guys are hungry. They’re excited to get back to work and get this running game going and keep working in the receiving corps to get the passing game going too. That makes it fun for me.