Interview Transcripts: Thursday (12/24)

Featuring assistant head coach/defensive coordinator Rex Ryan, offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg


Assistant Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Rex Ryan


On the players’ focus heading into a midweek day off:

“We’ve got a little meeting they’ll go to, and they get a day off, so that’ll be nice. I guess it’s a little make-up for that bye week that we missed, but it’ll be great.”


On what Jaguars RB Maurice Jones-Drew adds to that team’s attack:

“He’s a tremendous back. He’s a real powerful guy, loves to compete, a good receiver of the football. He’s got something like 600 yards receiving. He’s a competitive blocker in pass protection. That’ll be important to them, so we’ll see.”


On if Jaguars QB David Garrard still likes to attack with his feet or has become more of a pocket passer:

“I don’t think he’s running as much as he used to in the past, but he’s still got that threat, there’s no doubt. It’s like some of these running quarterbacks, even Carson Palmer. At one time, they become more of a pocket presence than just running. But he’s a guy that is a willing runner. When he does take off, he makes big plays, so we’ve got to make sure we’re aware of that.”


On what LB Ray Lewis’ legacy will be with this franchise:

“Whatever the franchise stands for, that’s what Ray stands for. Shoot, he hopefully has a lot more years here. But clearly, he’ll be the best player that this franchise has ever had and probably almost any franchise has had.”


On LB Bart Scott’s performance this season, if it is one of the best he has had:

“He’s doing a great job. I think when Greg Mattison came in here to coach, he really took to Greg and tried to get his game even tighter – from the steps and everything else, his reads. You can see that in his play. Bart is really a complete player.”


On how he keeps everyone walking the line from knowing what’s at stake on Sunday and not looking past the Jaguars:

“Oh, you can’t look past this team. This team won – what – 13 games last year? They’ve had a rough go of it in the win-loss column, but so did we. And even last year, we had four wins at this time and went against Pittsburgh and beat them. But it’s not about them. It’s about us, and we couldn’t care less what team shows up against us. We have to be good enough to beat them, and they’re clearly getting our focus, 100 percent of our focus. And whatever happens after that, happens. We have to win this game.”


Offensive Coordinator Cam Cameron

On how the team is feeling going into a game around which the whole season is built:

“Absolutely. That’s why all the hard work comes back from the offseason. Guys are banged up. We’ve had a good week of practice so far, and we’re under preparation for this game. It’s far from over, so we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us still. This team obviously beat Green Bay, had a great opportunity to beat Indianapolis. I think they’re probably feeling good about how they’re playing, and defensively, they’ve always been good. So we know we’ve got our hands full.”


On if there’s something about offensive line coach John Matsko’s coaching style that the young players take to:

“He’s been, at least in my mind and a lot of people’s minds, he’s been a great coach for a long time, and we were thrilled when we were able, when John [Harbaugh] was able to get him to come here. He’s old school, he’s tough, he’s hard nosed, he cares. I think they understand through however they interpret his coaching, he cares. And he knows what he’s doing. I think those two things go a long way in any business, but especially the National Football League.”


On if he thinks young players can respond to the old school coaching:

“I think all of us men are wired to respond to that, at least in this National Football League. He hasn’t backed down, he hasn’t flinched, and I think they’re… Maybe they’d understand some things, like most young players, can only understand some things early. But now, as they see how it’s evolved, and then things make more sense to them, and now they’re starting to come together as a group. He and Andy Moeller [assistant offensive line] both. I think he would tell you the same thing, Andy has had a tremendous, made a tremendous contribution this season as well.”


On if the Jaguars’ range at linebacker is better than most teams:

“Actually, we’ve got a couple of guys who played down there, and that’s the first thing they said to me, ‘These guys can run.’ And we’ve played, obviously, we see a lot of guys here that can run as well. But these guys can run, they can play, and you put a big front in front of them it frees them up to make plays.”


On the two big runs last weekend in Dallas:

“Yeah, that was… The timing there was pretty nice, huh? That was nice, but it seems like a month ago already. It really does. When you turn right around and you know the opportunity you have in front of you, you really do, you get your focus zeroed in on Jacksonville. And we’re going to need those kinds of plays. Hopefully those aren’t the last of those.”


On how much Jacksonville misses DT Marcus Stroud:

“You’d have to ask them. I think any defense would miss a guy like that, with that kind of presence inside. But, [John] Henderson, he can, he has ability to make up for that. Their defense, up front, is playing pretty well collectively. Players like that, you really don’t ever… You just adjust, but you really don’t ever replace them.”


Special Teams Coordinator Jerry Rosburg

On S Jim Leonhard’s impact on punt returns and how he’s been so successful these past couple weeks:

“I think the best words to describe Jim Leonhard is he’s a football player. Put him out there at any task, he just finds a way of getting the job done. The thing that people are perhaps a little mistaken on is they look at Jim and they think he’s an overachiever. That guy is a good athlete. You don’t make plays as a punt returner at this level without having athletic ability. He’s got an ability to put his foot in the ground and cut off people. He reads blocks very well, and he’s been a real positive force for us.”


On whether Leonhard has asserted himself as being the primary punt returner:

“That’s a long ways off.” On what he has done over the years when kickoff returns get in a rut: “The primary way we try to combat that is to go back to the fundamentals. It’s just like any other phase of the game. When things aren’t going particularly the way you went them to, you go back to the fundamentals. And that’s pretty much what we’ve done in practice. We’re practicing our blocking. We’re practicing our timing. We’re practicing our wedges. We hope that’ll serve us in order to knock one out here soon.”


On if he thinks P Sam Koch’s Special Teams Player of the Week honor was more for his punting or his running on the fake field goal:

“I don’t know. I’m not on the committee. But if they asked me, I would’ve voted for him, as well.”


On how much impact he had on the fake field goal call and what he saw there:

“Well, as you know, John [Harbaugh] is a special teams coach as well. We talk about these things every week, and this was one of those plays we talked about on Tuesday night. We saw what they were in during the course of the last few weeks and said, ‘Well, if the opportunity’s there, we’ll take a shot at it,’ and it came up. So John was huge in that. There are a lot of situations you’re in sometimes that the play is there, the play is there, and you never get it called because all those kinds of calls go through the head coach. John didn’t hesitate for a second.”


On how much S Daren Stone has helped on special teams and defense since he got here:

“Well, I can only speak for special teams, but I could say this: He’s had a real positive impact for us. He’s given us a gunner with size and speed. He’s a playmaker. He’s big enough as a safety to block inside guys and play on the inside on kickoff coverage, which is really something I think has helped us a lot.”


On whether he gets the sense that WR/RS Yamon Figurs’ confidence is shaken or he is tentative:

“I can’t speak to his confidence. I guess I’m not inside his head. I don’t think I’ve done a real good job of giving him his space. I take responsibility for that. I think Yamon is the kind of returner that, as you all have seen here before, you get him in space, and he’s exciting. He’s dangerous. The thing that I need to do a better job as a coach is getting him that opportunity.”


On having field goal attempts play a large role in the Giants-Panthers and Packers-Bears games this past weekend:

“I honestly don’t know what happened, so I can’t speak to the one. But I saw the block by Chicago on a replay when I was eating dinner. From what I saw there, Chicago pushed the line way back. They’re very good at that. I don’t think that’s an accident. Chicago hass been excellent at field goal blocks and punt blocks the last few years. They’ve got some big dudes that really come hard. I think, more than anything, that’s what had to do on that kick. I’m not sure what happened to Carolina.”


On how things like that go wrong when you spend so much time practicing these things:

“You practice all those situations as much as you can. When the game time comes up, you never know what it might be. Sometimes what happens, things that are largely unseen… Maybe the spot was half a yard off, and they’re trying to figure out where to move the ball, or the play clock is running down and they thought they had to hurry up. I didn’t see the play, so I really can’t comment on what happened. But sometimes, you see those kinds of things happen.”


On needing to just continually practice in order to perfect those things:

“Yeah, you’d like to have it in rhythm. You’d like to have it perfect.”


On a kicked ball getting stuck on the wall next to the media gathering:

“I don’t know, but I hope it doesn’t fall down during the press conference. (Laughter) I hope we can keep it up there. I want to see it up there for a while.”


On how it got there:

“It was a kick. The offense was out here practicing, so he thought we were going to do two-minute [drills]. So he was warming up. Not sure how that happened. Velcro ball, I think… (Laughter) One of those gags.”