New York Jets linebacker Bart Scott joined Boomer & Carton on WFAN this morning. Scott had some interesting things to say, both about New England quarterback Tom Brady and about the Pittsburgh Steelers, who the Jets face in the AFC Championship Game.
Sports Radio Interviews has the full transcript. Below are some exceprts.
When he knew Tom Brady was rattled:
“When he started throwing off his spot and doing uncharacteristic things like missing guys that were wide open and not putting the ball in place where his guys could catch it. This wasn’t the first time that we saw that look in his eyes. We saw that look in his eyes the first time we played him under the Rex Ryan regime. We just did it with all out blitzes and scheme and relentless pressure, but there’s more than one way to skin a cat. We understood that we could get what are called coverage sacks as well. This game we allowed them to use their pass rushing abilities because that was the game plan. These guys have been very unselfish in making sure they execute the game plan to make sure that we can be successful in the back as far as our DB’s getting sacks, linebackers getting sacks, things like that in taking two blockers up, but we turned those guys loose.”
On the maturation of Mark Sanchez:“He’s maturing before our very eyes. Last year it was tough sledding for him and it would be tough sledding for anyone because we were only capable of winning one way, ground and pound. We didn’t have the guys that other teams would respect on the outside. Now with Santonio Holmes and Braylon Edwards, who has been a great vertical receiver, and Jerricho Cotchery being a tremendous route runner in the middle with Dustin Keller, now teams have to play us more balanced. Now we’ve get an opportunity to run and pass. We got an opportunity to play a close game where we didn’t let it get out of hand too early. Any defense can play when your defense is putting up 30 points per game. We knew if we could force those guys to play a tough game like we did in the first game that they would make the mistakes because at the end of the day we were the veteran playoff team, not them.”
How tough the matchup will be with the Steelers:“If anybody knows this team, I know this team very well from my days in Baltimore. I know that they’re a tremendous franchise. Ben Roethlisberger unlike Tom Brady and Peyton Manning will take the bumps and take the hits, he’s a grown man in there and that’s why I respect him so much because he’s willing to look down the barrel of the gun and take it for his team. He will stand on that spot knowing that he’s going to get drilled and continue to take it. It’s going to take a complete effort and a complete game. The last time we faced them we didn’t play them with Troy Polamalu who makes a tremendous difference. The goal at the end of the day wasn’t to beat the Patriots. It was part of the process of the big picture, it was a step. We have another step to take to get to where we feel like we are capable of going and that’s the Super Bowl.”