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navinsena223
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#1 Posted: Mon Jan 5th, 2009 22:06 |
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HEAD COACH TONY SPARANO
(On how it feels the day after the playoff loss to Baltimore) - "It doesn't feel great. I don't think any of us really expected this. It's not something you can practice for. We came in here today and I woke up at 3:30 this morning kind of thinking about Pittsburgh. It's just the way it goes. Our guys, they fought hard all year, put themselves in this position and that ain't the way we wanted to end this thing, but unfortunately it's the way it went."
(On what he said to the guys in the last team meeting) - "In the locker room afterwards, I did tell them that I was proud of them in the locker room afterwards, but that really wasn't the place. In the locker room afterwards, you need to make sure that, in my mind at that point, you say as little as possible and you knew that you'd try to get to some of that today because anything you were going to say yesterday wasn't going to matter one way or the other. It wouldn't of mattered to me and wouldn't have mattered to them. Today, I did tell them that we were really proud of them. I did tell them that a long time ago when we walked in here, we talked about changing the culture and to a lot of people, that's lip service. To this group of people, it wasn't lip service. I said, 'How do you think you did? We drove in here this morning, these players drove in here this morning, there are fans outside waiting for them. We get back from the airport from New York last week, there are fans out there. There are fans all over the place outside the stadium as they were driving out yesterday. All of a sudden nationally, people know a little bit about you and what we are all about and where we're headed. So how did you do?' I think they understand that they really have changed the culture here and it's not an easy thing to do. All of a sudden, the bar is raised and there are expectations that come with that and that's something that we can look forward to."
(On if he has received any vote of confidence from incoming owner Stephen Ross that football operations will be maintained the way they are right now) - "I haven't even scratched the surface with any of that stuff. I've just been so worried about football. That's really all I'm worried about. That's not my business right now."
(On his vision of where this team is headed) - "My vision on where this team is headed would be to win one of those ballgames like we were in yesterday. If we put ourselves back in that position, and to win one of those ballgames like we were in yesterday, to be better prepared, to be bigger, to be stronger, to be faster and all of those things when we arrive at that point next time. I think, when you come in here and you're a new staff, the players don't know your expectations, they're not aware of what you're looking for and all of a sudden now, they really are aware of what this thing is all about and they do know our expectations and how we expect to get to where we're going to be. They do know that we won't rest until we get this thing right one way or the other. I think that there's a little bit clearer picture, or an awful lot clearer picture for them when they do come back. For us, we've just won our division, we won 11 ballgames and now you've got to say to yourself, 'you set your sights on being better than that'. You have a bar up there, you've got to try to go after that thing. That's easier said than done and you can't take for granted what just happened because it doesn't always happen that way.
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navinsena223
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#2 Posted: Mon Jan 5th, 2009 22:07 |
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(On if Chad Pennington will be the starting quarterback next year) - "Yeah. There are a lot of issues that go on out there during the course of the ballgame that can lead to throwing interceptions, fumbling the ball, giving up sacks. Normal things when you give up sacks, it's the line's fault; well you don't really know that. It can be the backs, it can be the receivers not running the site adjust, it can be a bunch of different things. There are a lot of things that went into why we didn't play well enough yesterday, particularly on that side of the ball. That quarterback has played very well for us the entire year. I think the guy is just an outstanding player."
(On not having a two month gap between the end of the season and when he gets back here) - "That's what we just talked about. We did talk about that, we just talked about the fact that, 'I don't want to be starting over again when we get here', we already had to do that once. When we got here, with some of the people that were here, we had to trim body fat, we had to do all of those kind of things, there is no time for that. This business is not a nine month business, it's really not, it's year round. You've got to keep yourself in shape, that's what we talked about. You've got to come in here in a situation where we're not having to go back to go forward. We want to hit the ground running when we do come back in here. They're all pretty aware of that right now."
(On how different his routine was this morning) - "Honestly, I just told the team this. I told them that at some point in the next couple days, they're probably going to wake up and feel what I felt today, which was, 'What the hell do I do now?' Right now, for them, they probably got a million things going on, but that's exactly what happened to me this morning. I woke up at 3:30, expected to come in here and go to work and play Pittsburgh. Now, I'm in here at 3:30, I'm going through the film and I'm done with that and now it's, 'Okay, where do we go from here', but I have so many things that I need to do right now. There is so much left out here right now that we have to dive into that you never really wanted to get into. Certainly, you didn't want to think about that. I knew there had to be an exit strategy and I actually said that to Jeff Ireland a couple weeks ago, or not a couple weeks ago, but the week of the Jets game. You're preparing for the Jets game and you can win the division, but you could also be going home and you have to prepare for an exit strategy. I couldn't bring myself to do that and I told Jeff that. I said, 'Look, I apologize, but I'm not going to be prepared for that. I'm can't bring myself to do that'. Now we're here so we've got evaluations that need to go on with players. We need to get this whole season cleaned up, evaluate our players right now, making sure that we're doing that, start to head down the road and get to the Senior Bowls and all of those things that need to take place, so there's an awful lot of work here; players, coaches, system, evaluate the systems on both sides of the ball, do all of those things. We need to get some things squared away right now, then I need to get these coaches out of here for a little while and let them take a little bit of a break."
(On what this team needs to improve going into 2009) - "Until I really sit back and go through all of the tape, I can't pinpoint one area and say to you, 'this is where'. I would say to you that the philosophy is that you always want to continue to improve in the lines. We made great strides there this year. A guy that played outstanding in that ballgame yesterday was Kendall Langford. This guy really played a good football game yesterday out there. When you see a young guy like that play that kind of game in that kind of game, it lends you to feel pretty good about some of these young guys that you bring in. Jake Long really had a good game out there yesterday.
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navinsena223
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#3 Posted: Mon Jan 5th, 2009 22:07 |
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He gave up one (sack) yesterday on a Twist, but other than that, I think the guy played really a good game. When you're looking at those kind of things, you're saying, from my end, 'The lines are always the area that you never get enough of them. You're finding that out, you're down two guards. You just never get enough of them. You never get enough secondary people'. There are several areas we have to take a long look at where we are right now and know where we're heading."
(On how you force yourself to appreciate the season despite being so disappointed) - "It's kind of the way I'm built I guess. It's probably the bad thing about this business is just that the wins, (Bill) Parcells used to tell me this, he just used to say, 'The wins last so much less than the losses do. The losses can last for a long time and the wins fly by'. There's 11 of them and you just keep thinking of the next one and the next one and the next one and the next one and ah, that loss. Enjoying it, I love what I do, I love what I do with that team and I think they are a tremendous bunch of guys to be around, I really do. They are an inspiration to me, I give them all of the credit in the world, but we'll get through it. I give myself a 24 hour rule, too. We'll get back at it."
(On if Bill Parcells has said anything about coming back next season) - "I haven't really discussed that with him."
(On how close the core of players that he has is to where he wants it to be) - "Without going through the whole thing and really analyzing it, which we will do and we will go through long and hard, we won 11 games, you have to feel closer. You don't want to let that cloud your vision though. What I mean is, you can't just say, 'Well, you won 11 games, leave it alone. Everything is good'. You can't let that cloud your vision. The teams that do let that cloud their vision probably don't get a lot better. We can't let that cloud our vision, we have to continue to try to get better here which we will continue to do. The one thing that our players learned, you people have learned is that, we're going to leave no stone unturned right now to try to make this football team better."
(On what is more difficult; going from where this team was to respectability or from respectability to elite status) - "That's a good question. What we just did is pretty difficult to do. I really believe in my heart that that next jump is a really hard jump, it really is. You have to give all the credit in the world to the teams like the Patriots and the Giants and those kind of teams that do it and have done it consistently.
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navinsena223
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#4 Posted: Mon Jan 5th, 2009 22:08 |
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From our end, again, I take nothing away from our players and what we've just accomplished, that's a heck of a thing we just accomplished, it really is. To do it over and over and over again, that's what makes you elite in my mind. The Lakers were elite, the Yankees were elite even though I'm a Mets fan. Another body blow today."
(On where he stands with the playmakers on both sides of the ball on this team) - "I can't really comment on the personnel that way without going through the whole thing and really sitting down and going through everything. From my end, I just know that some positions you can never get enough of and I've learned that this year. I was always told that. There was a point where I was just a pig headed line coach sitting in there wanting every offensive linemen. Then I used to get hit in head and they used to tell me, 'Look, you've got to think of the big picture. You've got to think of the big picture and there's some positions you just can't get enough of', and I'm aware of that now, I really am."
(On if he liked the feeling of the crowd when he got on the field yesterday) - "I sure did. You couldn't help it. Yesterday, the fans, they were tremendous, they really were. We didn't give them many reasons during the course of that thing, but, it was outstanding. For our players to come out there like that, in that kind of situation and see that kind of support out there, it's exactly what you wanted. We said a long time ago that we have to give them reason to come out. I think we gave them reason to come out. I hope that they're proud of this group of guys because I sure as heck am."
(On if he can look back and be proud of the job that he's done because he earned the respect of the whole team) - "For me, that's the greatest deal you can have, it really is, to have the respect of your team. All that other stuff doesn't really matter to me, it really doesn't. I don't do this for those things; I do it for the players respect in that room. I think that that's the pay day, it really is. For me, I appreciate that, but those guys are the real reason why, they really are."
(On if the locker room after the Jets game would be the defining moment for him this season) - "Yeah, that would be it for me, that would be it. I think that was just a tremendous feeling at the end of that thing knowing that your back was to the wall every single game for five, six games. You just can't even put it into words what that's like out there. You know to have to go out there and have to win one every single week like that and have no margin for error, then to see it all come down to one of those games on the road like that. I think people want to say, 'you've got to win the hard games'. Well, they won a hard game there, they really did. They won a hard game down there, in their place, to win a division and it put themselves in this position. That would be the defining moment for me."
(Final comment to the media members) - "I do appreciate you guys, I really do. Your professionalism I think has been outstanding and sometimes we don't always agree, but I want to thank you for everything you did and the way you covered our guys. So thanks."
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