E-Boland & Gang Green

By Tom Rock

He did everything but read aloud the names of every Jets season ticket holder. Perhaps if he'd had more time to do the research, he would have.

Jets coach Eric Mangini is required to provide the media with 20 minutes of access, and today, when he knew most of the questions would be about the CamScam and the league’s announcement of penalties against the Patriots, he tried his best to fill those 20 minutes with as much talk and as little information as possible.

Here’s his opening statement, which went on for just over four minutes, the essence of which, from what I was awake for, was really just to tell us that today is Friday, Darrelle Revis is a rookie, and the game on Sunday starts at 4 p.m.:

"I understand that there is going to be a lot of interest and questions related to the ruling yesterday. What I can say is that I respect the commissioner's decision. Anything related to the decision or anything associated to the decision is a league matter. That's all I can say about it. I hope you can respect that.

"In terms of what we're doing today, I talked a lot about this being the first normal week that we've had. That is a bit of a transition. You had the opening week where there were two extra days. You could get ahead on your film study and your personal opponent study. The time is valuable and you try to use it wisely. In a normal game week, especially for the young guys, they have to get used to transitioning from looking at the tape on Monday of the previous game, getting those corrections and then shift the focus to the next opponent. That's always what we try to do on Monday and that's always what we're focused on. Tuesday, the players' day off, they take home DVDs, spend time getting ahead of the game plan and getting ahead of the work on the next opponent. (When they) come in on Wednesday, that's a heavy installation day where you've got the overall scouting report, which is pretty extensive. Then you've got the game plan element. You've got to walk through it, practice it, transition the next day and work on things you did. You add some more installation, third down traditionally. On Friday where it's a lighter day of practice with overall reps, you're working on the red area, short yardage, goal line and those sorts of things. Each day the focus has to remain consistent. It's a lot of information compacted into a very short amount of time. Guys need to get used to studying what we've put in as well as studying the player that they're facing. We often talk about the game within the game. So Darrelle Revis needs to look at the receivers he could be facing and understand the qualities of each guy. It's the same as it will be moving forward, but it is different for these guys than it has been. It's a 4:00 game. That's going to be a little bit different. That's all part of the process in the early part of the season.

"Baltimore is a team that's extremely innovative on defense. There's always going to be some new wrinkles. They provide a lot of different looks. There's many talented players on the offensive side of the ball. It's going to be new things you have to deal with. There's multiple guys that can hurt you in different ways. You have to understand exactly what we're trying to get done and exactly what they're trying to get done. (Regarding Baltimore’s) special teams - serious problems. I know they've lost (B.J.) Sams. We saw what happened when they switched returners. He's a pretty good punt returner, as well. Yamon Figurs goes in. (I) saw him a lot in college. He presents some problems.

"It's working through all those phases and now transitioning to the red area. (Baltimore has) done a very good job there. (They were the) lowest scoring defense last year in terms of their opponents. There is still a lot of work to be done even though it's late in the week. Then it's buttoning everything up, tightening everything up, going through and making sure that you're sound and dealing with the loud environment. I think the fact that we've had music throughout training camp and worked with a loud environment for quite some time is a plus but it's still different than crowd noise. It's something you have to get used to. You try to simulate that as much as possible, but it is something they have to constantly work on."

Did I lose you?

Mangini later discussed in agonizing detail nearly all of the special teams coaches with whom he has worked in his career. Then took us on a winding tour of the 3-4 defense that weaved its way from Rex Ryan to Mike Nolan and even brought it back here to the days when Al Groh was coaching the Jets then found its way up to Dom Capers’ system in Miami.

And with that, his 20 minutes were up.