The Jets’ ugly 37-20 preseason loss to the Vikings was only minutes old and Eric Mangini stood at the podium for his postgame press conference trying his best to be mellow and in control of his emotions.
Yet it was clear he was seething inside.
Four turnovers, leading to 24 Minnesota points, and general shoddy play in some areas on defense, including missed tackles, will lead to repercussions from a coach as detail- and discipline-oriented as Mangini. So the players are bracing for a tough week of practice, beginning today.
“I told them after the game that if anyone has the impression that this is OK because it’s preseason, they’re wrong,” Mangini said. “Next week, we’re going to work . . . extremely hard to get these corrected. I think they understand.”
They certainly do.
“We always expect the worst,” Chad Pennington said. “We know what a stickler [Mangini] is for details, so we understand what we’re up against next week, and we’ll be fine. Whatever [Mangini] has in store for us we’ll be ready. We know that he’s probably got a few tricks up his sleeve to motivate us and get us going and we’ll motivate ourselves.”
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OL Pete Kendall’s summer of discontent keeps getting more intriguing. Kendall said he told the coaches he wasn’t comfortable playing center in a game after only a few days of practice, yet the coaches put him in at center in the second half Friday night.
The result was two bad snaps in the shotgun formation, one of which was recovered by the Vikings and led to a Minnesota field goal.
Kendall is the best left guard on the Jets, better than Adrien Clarke, who has been getting half of the snaps with the starters.
Don’t be stunned if, after all of this contentiousness, the Jets keep Kendall and give him the $1 million he’s seeking to add to his $1.7 million salary. Either that or Mangini is so ticked off at him he wants Kendall gone at any cost.
Told the cynic might think he tanked it on those snaps as a protest to playing center, Kendall said, “I can’t do anything about what other people think. I’ll sleep knowing that I did the best I could.”
Kendall, a natural guard, said he wants to remain a guard.
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Today marks the first full week of training camp for CB Darrelle Revis, the Jets’ top draft pick, who signed last week. Revis, who was in uniform Friday but didn’t play, surely will play against the Giants on Saturday.
“It was a little weird being in uniform not playing, but I’m looking forward to practice (today) and getting into the mix and getting back into the playbook,” Revis said. “There are things I have to catch up on and I have to work hard.”