JET NOTES
Sunday’s game between the Jets and Texans at Giants Stadium will pit two rookie head coaches against each other in Eric Mangini and Gary Kubiak.
The two last clashed as assistants in a playoff game last January in Denver, where Kubiak’s Broncos defeated Mangini’s Patriots. Kubiak was the Broncos’ offensive coordinator and Mangini was the Patriots’ defensive coordinator.
“I have such respect for Eric. He’s done as good a job as there is in football this year,” Kubiak said yesterday. “As we try to prepare for his team, it is very difficult. He was always that way for me as coordinator when he was in New England.”
Said Mangini: “The one unique thing [Kubiak brings] is, like in Denver, it was different every week. They have complete packages specific to you that may have not shown up prior to that on tape.”
Kubiak said of his rookie year, “You think you’re ready and say you’re ready, but the load you take on is something you can never really say you expected. When you’re a coordinator, you worry about your side of the ball. As a head coach, there are three different areas to worry about, and then you’ve got 53 players and their lives, [and] the media. It’s tremendously demanding. I feel better about it each week.”
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Jonathan Vilma is one defensive player who hopes the coaches continue to dial up the blitz early and often.
“We really shut down Cleveland after the first three quarters, then we turn around and do it again in New England and we did a pretty good job against Chicago, as well,” Vilma said. “As long as we can keep doing that and keep putting pressure on them, we should be all right.”
The Jets list four players as questionable: running backs FB B.J. Askew (foot) and Cedric Houston (knee), and cornerbacks David Barrett (hip) and CB Andre Dyson (neck).