San Francisco 49ers CB Carlos Rogers, told SiriusXM NFL Radio, the Jets’ defense might have quit last Sunday.
“It kinda seemed like, after a while they just, I know, looking at their defense, they didn’t want to be out there,” Rogers said. “And after that it’s like, man, these guys don’t really want to play the game. You know, it’s pretty much over.
“You could see it happening. It kinda shocked me just because, you know, a lot of guys were saying on the sideline, ‘Oh, they don’t want to tackle, they don’t want to do this, they don’t want to do that.’ That’s a Rex Ryan defense. That’s a Rex Ryan team.”
Jets DC Mike Pettine is using that quote as motivation for his charges.
“I distributed the quote,” Pettine said. “We put it up on the screen, I let those guys read it in the meeting, (I) just didn’t say anything and just let them read it. (I) just let them soak it in. To me, there’s nothing worse then (someone saying you quit). I think you’re going to get all sorts of insults hurled at you in sports, ‘You’re too slow, you’re dumb, you’re this, you’re that. But one of the worst ones that can be put on you is that you quit.
“I just think it was the fact that it was put out there, I think it was good our guys got to see that. If it comes from the media, if it comes from a fan, or it comes from some other source, but when it comes from a peer, you have to kind of stop yourself and say, ‘Wait a minute, is this the effort (I can give)?” If it’s being perceived as this, than we need to take action.”
For the record, Pettine doesn’t feel like the Jets’ defense quit.
