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Robert Saleh Walks Back Comments About Embarrassing Opposing Quarterbacks
Published:
Josh Alper at NBC/Pro Football Talk:
While Jets head coach Robert Saleh was praising his defense in the wake of Sunday’s win over the Eagles, he noted the difficulty of the team’s schedule over the first six months of the season by saying that the Jets have faced “a gauntlet of quarterbacks” and that the defense has “embarrassed all of them.”
Saleh was riding the high of an unexpected win at the time of those comments and he revisited them during a Tuesday appearance on NFL Network. Saleh said he would now choose a different way of phrasing his feelings about the team’s defensive performance.
“The word ‘embarrassed’ was probably not the right choice of words for me at that time, but there’s a lot of faith in our defense and [defensive coordinator] Jeff Ulbrich and how good a job he and the defensive staff do in terms of preparing guys every week and just doing everything we can to make quarterbacks’ lives hell,” Saleh said.
Okay. Guy was probably emotional after a big win, but then sobered up and realized he’s 3-3 with Zach Wilson as his quarterback.
Pagan and I talked about this on Monday’s episode of Crossing Broadcast. How much of the Eagles loss was due to the Jets defense being the ’85 Bears and how much of it was due to self-inflicted wounds? The three drops and the missed field goal certainly had nothing to do with the Jets D. The Dallas Goedert “interception” was more of a fumble anyway, so while you can credit the Jets on that play, it didn’t have anything to do with Jalen Hurts. Same with the D’Andre Swift fumble. Good defensive play, but again, not relevant to “embarrassing” the quarterback. It was the two second-half interceptions, first the pressure off the edge, and then Hurts at the end of the game, where you’d give them the most credit. But even then, you could blame the last one on Jalen and ask yourself what the hell he was doing/looking at there.
Also, I’m not sure how far back this “gauntlet” extends, but Dak Prescott tore up the Jets to the tune of 255 yards and two touchdowns in a 30-10 Dallas win. Russell Wilson went 20-31 for 196 and two scores in a Broncos loss. New York played well against Hurts and Patrick Mahomes but let’s not act like the Jets defense is the greatest thing of all time and eternity. It’s a really good unit, but people would have you think they’re the 2000 Ravens. Let’s slow it down before we crown the Jets.
More on the discussion here:
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com