Jets Dismiss Lewis' Comments...
Braylon Edwards of the New York Jets sits on the bench during a preseason game against the Philadelphia Eagles. (Sept. 2, 2010) Credit: Getty Images
Just hours after Ray Lewis shared his two cents on quarterback Mark Sanchez, the Jets had their own message for the Baltimore linebacker: Get your eyes checked.
During Lewis' Thursday morning conference call with the New York media (see below), he said the second-year QB’s passing game left much to be desired.
“We don’t even have to guess,” he said. “All we have to do is look at the film. He struggles a lot when he has to throw the ball a lot. That’s just not his forte.”
“It’s not their team’s thing,” he added. “You have to grasp the team concept. If you don’t grasp their team concept (and) worry about Sanchez trying to grow, then they beat you by simply running the ball. You look at both championship games last year, third-down and eight, third-down and nine, they’re running the ball (and) picking up first downs. Everybody (was) putting their sub packages in and all these fast people to try to cover these wide receivers, but all of that was just a cover up. It comes down to bottom line buckling up your chin straps and realize how they’re going to play for 60 minutes.”
Wide receiver Braylon Edwards appeared taken aback by Lewis’ statement and offered this retort: “Maybe he’s looking at Mark’s earlier film from last season, then he’d be on to something. But if you’re paying attention to preseason, then you’re sadly mistaken. You’re misled.”
Said cornerback Antonio Cromartie: "I really don’t care what Ray has to say. Ray is going to be Ray. He’s going to say what he wants to say."
Jets coach Rex Ryan called Lewis, “the most inspirational player that I ever had the honor of coaching.” But, he too, disagreed with his former player's assessment.
“Well I have a lot of faith in Mark. When you look at it, the bigger the game, the better he played last year. The AFC championship game, he played pretty well I think. So when you get down to it I have a lot more confidence in Mark than Ray does, apparently.”
In response to Lewis’ claim that Ryan inadvertently puts a bull’s-eye on his players with his trash-talking, the coach said: “My players haven’t made those comment, I have. So the pressure is on me, not on our players. I would disagree. It’s on me. Because if it doesn’t work out like I think it’ll work out, who’s it going to be on? It’s going to be on one person and that’s going to be me. Not on our team. So I would disagree there.
"But again, if you want to win it, you ought to be man enough to stand up there and say, ‘We expect to win.’ And I got news for you, we expect to win this week, next week and every week. Now does it happen? No, it doesn’t happen all the time. But we expect to win and that’s how we approach every game.
