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Q)What was your message to the team today?
Bowles: On to the next one. We’re close. We’ve made some plays. We made some strides from the Kansas City game to the last game. We’ve got to clean up some mistakes. We can’t beat ourselves.
Leberfeld: I don’t think they improved from the Kansas City to Seattle games.
Q)Why are there are still miscommunication issues in the secondary?
Bowles: I don’t think they’re issues from a communication stand point that they don’t know. I think it’s issues (where) some guys aren’t as vocal when they need to be. Those are things that can easily be cleaned up and they see it on film. We see it on the sidelines and we have some things in place to try and take care of that.
Leberfeld: Cleaned up when? It’s happened in all four games. Maybe some guys just can’t cut it as starters.
Q)Do things need to be simplified for the secondary?
Bowles: There about as simple as they can be.
Leberfeld: Maybe they should stop playing Calvin Pryor in the deep third. He’s not great back there.
Q)Is it alarming that the secondary continues to have issues?
Bowles: That’s alarming.
Leberfeld: It’s alarming that there haven’t been line-up changes.
Q)Have you ever coached a secondary with this many miscommunication breakdowns?
Bowles: It’s really not miscommunication, so that’s probably the wrong choice of word. You can call it busts. Sometimes it’s not miscommunication when there’s only one guy involved. I’ve seen certain plays like that that I’ve coached the secondary. I don’t know if there’s been as many at the same time, but overall during the course of the year you’ve seen certain plays like that. We’ve had way too many.
Leberfeld: Fair points. It can’t be a miscommunication when one guy is involved, like on that long TD to Tanner McEvoy. Bad play by one guy. Too a misstep.
Q)Do you need to make some line-up changes in the secondary?
Bowles: We’ll look at it and evaluate day by day. It’s a different guy every time. Things will be shaken up as we go forward.
Leberfeld: And rightfully so.
Q)Do you believe you have the personnel in the secondary to be what you want it to be?
Bowles: Yes, I do.
Leberfeld: This is debatable.
Q)How surprising/frustrating are the breakdowns in the secondary considering the returning players from last season?
Bowles: It’s frustrating, but again, we lost the first quarter of the season. We have to get better the second, third and fourth quarter (of the season), but it’s frustrating. There’s things we’re working on, things we’re doing, things they’re working on, they’re frustrated, but we have to work through it.
Leberfeld: I think there problems are related to the instincts of a couple of players and another player lost a step.
Q)What about Fitzpatrick gives you faith that you can turn this around?
Bowles: He’s been in the league a long time. I think if you’re in this league long enough, you’re going to go through some slumps as a team. It’s not just Ryan, it’s as a team. Some of it’s some chemistry things that we have to straighten out, but he’s a confident guy. We’re confident in our offense and we know we’ll get it turned around.
Leberfeld: The Jets best option now even with his shortcomings.
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