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As offensive coordinator of the first NFL team in 35 years to fail to score a touchdown in its first three preseason game, you could forgive Tony Sparano if he seemed uncomfortable talking about his New York Jets' offense. Like head coach Rex Ryan, quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow, and just about anyone other than Jets fans forced to watch, Sparano is trying to focus on the positives.
"I think the guys are realistic. I think they understand what's going on. I think they see themselves getting better," Sparano said. "I think getting Tone (Santonio Holmes) back out there, and (Jeremy) Kerley back out there, and all the experience right now that Stephen (Hill) has gotten and Jordan White and Pat Turner and our tight end group. I just think that's been valuable."
Sparano, like everyone else, continued to point to the vague idea that the Jets -- with only seven field goals in three games -- are making progress.
"I feel like we made some progress in a lot of areas. Honestly, at the end of the game, we looked at a bunch of areas that we made improvement in and some areas that we needed improvement to be made," Sparano said. "It's probably about 10 or 11 things that we felt we did really well in that game and there's four or five things that we felt like we needed to improve on."
Much has been of the Jets and the use of the Wildcat offense with Tebow. The Jets, though, have chosen not to show that part of their offense during the preseason.
"For me to go out there and put something out on the field and give somebody a month to prepare for it. No disrespect but you guys (the media) can figure that out in a month. I might have a chance to figure your job out in a month. It's a month, that's a long time. I'm not interested in that," Sparano said.