New England Patriots 54, New York Jets 13
RS: All right, obviously Zach has a knee. We'll know tomorrow after the MRI. Sherwood has an ankle. We'll know tomorrow. Quincy had a concussion and Cashman had a groin.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. When you can move in certain directions, you can get an indication of how bad it is. Do you know, is it PCL or ACL more?
RS: You know what, we'll know more tomorrow. Initially we feel good, but you never know.
Q. How do you make sense of that 54 points today?
RS: Top down. Starts with coaching all the way down. Obviously we got to be better. They punched us in the freaking mouth and scored points, so credit to them. That's it. I mean, I've been in part of some of those in my life. They just don't feel good.
Q. (No microphone.)
RS: Our guys are playing their tails off. It's what we talked about at halftime, it's just a matter of executing and doing things the right way. Just execute.
Came out in the second half, obviously offense I thought Mike stepped in, started doing a good job, Mike White, moving the ball. Scored in the second half. Had an opportunity there in the first series of defense. Obviously didn't work out.
That fourth quarter we ran out of humans. So all our linebackers, all that stuff. It just wasn't good.
Q. Having the two weeks off, not only physically getting a chance to get refreshed, but all the studying you did, scouting, tweaks, to come out pretty much on the first series and be on your heels...
RS: Yeah, from a defensive standpoint obviously we all think we're a lot better than that. Again, I want to tell you unforced errors, but obviously there's got to be a better way we got to coach it. There's messages that have to be a lot better.
Clearly something wasn't connecting today starting with coaching, so...
Q. It's a word that isn't generally thrown around lightly, but when you guys 'suffer' a loss like this, get punched in the mouth early, there's no real comeback, is there a sense of embarrassment after one like this?
RS: Yeah, obviously. This is the NFL. You give up 50 points, it's embarrassing. I don't think I've had this feeling after a game since 2017 against Dallas. A helpless feeling where you're just watching, you're trying to figure something out.
I'll be honest. We talk about adversity. Everyone was asking. You can chalk this one up, it's here. This is from coaches all the way down. NFL doesn't really give a flying shit - excuse my language - in terms of scheduling. We got to line up the next week and for the 11 or 12, whatever we got left.
I know we got the right men in that locker room. I know we got the right people in that locker room. I know we'll come back strong. But we got to get it going.
Q. They were still slinging it a little bit down the stretch in the fourth quarter. Did you have any problem with that?
RS: No. It's the NFL.
Q. Some of those hits on Zach, no flags thrown. But the one he was kind of near the sideline, seemed like that hit was a little late, also low. Then the one where he seemed to get hurt, another one that was kind of low. Did you have any opinion...
RS: No. When you're out of the pocket you can go as low as you want, from my understanding. I haven't seen the replay on the one he actually got hurt on. From my understanding, it was fine. His knee drove into the ground, and that's what caused the injury, so...
Q. Anything you plan on doing differently, specifically defensively, for your next game?
RS: No, so there's always a tell-the-truth moment in terms of when you watch film. You always want to look at, one, structurally were we okay. Were there mistakes. Was it structurally where no matter what we did based on that call, were we going to be in the situation we were in or was it just a matter of executing.
Once we get to the film room, study all that, just check it obviously. I don't want to give you wholesale changes when structurally I think we were okay. I think the guys for the most part were executing. All it takes is one. So we'll get a good idea after film study.
Q. You've been an upbeat guy since we've gotten to know you. You're not a screamer. Does this team need a kick in the ass? Do you need to be a screamer right now?
RS: No, these are grown men. They are. In this league, I refuse to believe otherwise, these men play their tails off. They go to work and they have a lot of pride. There's a lot of pride in the locker room. There's a lot of pride throughout the NFL in terms of they're putting on tape, they're showing out, trying to play for one another, their teammates are family. There's a lot of whys for why people show up.
If you need somebody, it's just my opinion, to be in your butt yelling at you to get going playing a child's game at a king's ransom, then you don't deserve to wear the logo, period.
I know we got great character guys. I know they were playing their butts off. Everyone once in a while you get your (expletive) - excuse my language - you get your teeth knocked in. Sorry.
Q. Just a few minutes after the game, but what are you most pissed off about today? Is it yourselves as coaches? Ticked at the players for the execution?
RS: I always look inward. I always look at me first, look in the mirror, see what we can do. Did we chase something. I always look inward. I'm going to challenge everybody to look inward. Look at yourself first before you start pointing the finger and searching for reasons why.
Trying to see if you can feel good about yourself and blame people. It's not about that. It's about individual fortitude and individual reflection, trying to find a way to get things fixed.
I'm not upset. It's probably more disappointment than anything.
Q. Was C.J. close at all? How much did his absence hurt you?
RS: C.J., obviously he's an all-pro player. Did it hurt? Obviously, yeah. Should it have hurt this bad? No. Missing his presence, not having C.J. out there, obviously it hurt. It shouldn't have hurt this bad.
But to answer your question, we'll see. I haven't gotten the chance to talk to him, see how he felt. It was pretty clear going into this morning, even before the workout, it was probably going to be a longshot anyway.
Q. Did you feel the wind was taken out of your sails when you lost Zach? Was that a body blow for you guys?
RS: I don't know if it was a body blow at all. No, no.
Q. Did you get a chance to talk to Zach? If you did, what was he like?
RS: He's fine. Just talked to him at halftime. I'll go see him here in a second. Seems like he's in a good place. After the evaluation tomorrow, we'll see where we go from there.
Q. If Zach has to miss time, how much of a setback is that for him and his development? We all know experience is so important.
RS: No, it's a fair question. Anytime you miss reps, it's not ideal. But I don't think it's going to be that big of a setback.
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