Justin Tuck, 11.30.09

Q. Was it good to have the weekend away from football or would you have preferred to be back to work by now?

A. It wasn’t much like a bye week. I was in the facility a lot this weekend.

Q. What is your level of optimism given what has happened and heading into this stretch against three division opponents?

A. Give me a scale.

Q. 1-10?

A. 11.

Q. Why?

A. Call me ignorant or foolish, but that is the only way I know how to approach things.

Q. The level of play has been erratic the last few weeks. What gives you that sense other than your general mindset of being optimistic?

A. To be erratic, you have to do some good things. We have proven that we can play good. We just have to find a way to do it on a consistent basis. When you have had some games that you played pretty decent, I guess that is the reason why I am optimistic because I have seen us do it. We were 5-0 and everything went south. We can be 6-5 and everything goes north.

Q. When the Broncos beat you guys last Thursday they gave a lot of credit to a team meeting, a player’s only meeting that Brian Dawkins had called before the game. Do you see any value in that?

A. There is value in it when it works.

Q. Have you guys had one recently?

A. We have had a few.

Q. Did you not get the results you were hoping from it?

A. No, obviously we didn’t. We have lost a few games here.

Q. Has there been one since the Denver game?

A. Nope.

Q. In your own mind do you think there has to be a pick-up of the level of urgency? Is there an extra sense of urgency not only in your mind but in everybody else’s mind now approaching this game?

A. I don’t know how you pick your urgency up any higher than we had last week. We have to continue to do what we do. I felt like the urgency was there, I felt like the practices were great last week. I felt like we were ready to play. For some reason it didn’t translate onto the football field. We’ve got to go out and do the job this week.

Q. Thoughts about going up against Flozell Adams?

A. I don’t necessarily go up against him like I am the right end. There’s timeout for individual battles. I am just trying to help my football team win football games.

Q. You have played two games without Antonio Pierce. Can you tell that there is something missing either physically or emotionally?

A. It’s not like when you are on the football field you are saying, ‘Oh no, if AP was here, things would be different. ’ You do notice his presence in the huddle. Sometimes intangibles get in the way of that. AP has a lot of intangibles that made him a great linebacker and a great leader on this defense. Is he missed? Absolutely. But can we use that as an excuse? No. We feel very confident with the guy that came in and did an adequate job. I just think the intangibles are kind of the things you notice and miss sometimes.

Q. Do you think that the players will meet before the Dallas game? If so, who usually calls the players meeting?

A. Well, I don’t know. Normally if we meet, we try to keep you out of it because it’s a players only meeting.

Q. The Jets have a similar short week this week; they play on Thursday night. What was the biggest challenge when you look back on that?

A. For me personally, it was not giving the body a week to try and turn around and play. Had practice the day after a football game and then having to get ready to play another football game. Then you have to get on the plane and go out there. You don’t make any excuses. We had an opportunity to play and the Denver had the same week we did.