Q. Your first-down production has been pretty poor in the first two games. I think you've been in second-and-8 or longer 60 percent of the time. How big of a factor is that in the whole big picture of your offensive struggles?
COACH KELLY: That's a factor for anybody offensively. You really want to gain at least 4 on first down to kind of keep yourself on schedule. But besides the second half of the Falcons game the first half of the Falcons game and then the entire Cowboys game, we were not very good on first down.
Q. How serious is RB DeMarco Murray's hamstring injury?
COACH KELLY: I don't know. I think they said it's tweaked, but they will see what it is. He's not going to go today and we'll see what he does Friday on Saturday to make a determination whether he will play or not on Sunday.
Q. You have had a couple of days of training since the last game. Are you confident that the run game can get going and have you gone back to the fundamentals like you said you would earlier in the week?
COACH KELLY: We are always doing that. It's just we have to execute it when we play on Sundays. Our practice training and regime and whatnot has not changed. We had a good day yesterday; it was our only day in pads during the week. We're only allowed to go one day in pads. So yesterday we had a good training session.
Q. You thought that players were overthinking things. Is the game plan maybe a little bit more simplified this week?
COACH KELLY: No, it's still the same thing. We just need to execute what we need to do.
Q. You guys signed RB Ryan Mathews for depth at running back. This would seem to be a case where it helps to have an extra running back for depth.
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I mean you always have to have depth at running back and that was always the plan for us. We have tremendous confidence in Ryan and also in [RB] Darren Sproles, if DeMarco can't go. But I'm not we're not putting any things on anything now. We'll see what he [Murray] does tomorrow and Saturday. He won't go today and we'll see how he does tomorrow and Saturday to make a determination on whether he will play on Sunday.
Q. Does this affect the game plan at all and what you want to do?
COACH KELLY: No, and I think it's part of what we wanted to do. I think Ryan and DeMarco are similar type players. You can do similar type things with them. If you had a different type of back backing up or being the No. 2 guy, then it's a different deal, but that's one of the reasons we really had Ryan in here.
Q. Any update on LB Kiko Alonso?
COACH KELLY: Kiko won't go this week. He's not going to go today, so it doesn't look like he'll go this week and then they will just evaluate it.
Q. Ryan Mathews only had six snaps on Sunday against the Cowboys.
COACH KELLY: Yeah, we didn't have many snaps on offense. That's kind of a byproduct of it.
Q. As much as you guys have stressed hydration, avoiding fatigue and all that, is the number of soft-tissue injuries kind of disturbing to you?
COACH KELLY: No. I mean, I think we have two. So I don't
Q. And throw in LB Marcus Smith's injury from preseason.
COACH KELLY: So three
Q. Those are key players.
COACH KELLY: But it's just a total number, three out of 90 guys. I don't think that's
Q. That's not any different than last year or the year before?
COACH KELLY: The number? No. We've had guys miss some time with muscle injuries are going to happen. I don't think you can totally prevent them, but you can also do a better job of trying to put yourself in a situation where it doesn't occur. But I don't think in certain situations, in those guys, that it was because they weren't hydrated and that's why they -- if that was always the key, I think everybody would just hydrate and you would never have a muscle pull. There are other factors that go into that: Are your hips off? Is there instability in your back, so now one leg is a little bit longer than the other leg, so you have too much strain on one muscle compared to another muscle? So it's just kind of like driving a car. It could be an alignment issue. The gas and oil is fine, but if your wheels are off, your car is not going to run the right way.
Q. Did Murray's injury happen during practice or had it been bothering him?
COACH KELLY: It just happened in practice.
Q. How about LB Mychal Kendricks? Will he be available on Sunday?
COACH KELLY: Still don't know. I think he's going to do some things with [director of sports science and reconditioning] Shaun Huls today, and then we'll monitor him going into tomorrow and Saturday.
Q. How has not running as much zone-read affected the run offense?
COACH KELLY: I think we're probably the same that we ran last year. The amount of zone-read we've run is the same in two years, so I don't think it's affected anything.
Q. Has QB Sam Bradford not had the opportunities to keep the ball and run? Last year with Nick Foles, you would see him keep it once or twice --
COACH KELLY: It just depends on how people defend you. Again, I said this since I got here, we don't call as much zone-read as you people think we run zone-read. So every run out of the shotgun is not a zone-read run play. It's actually a very minimal part of what we do. It's been a very minimal part with Nick and it's probably about the same amount with Sam.
Q. With as much as the Jets blitz, what's the responsibility on the receivers to get open in man coverage?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, I think one of the things they do is put the receivers on islands because of what they have back there. When you have [CB Darrelle] Revis and [CB Antonio] Cromartie and [CB Buster] Skrine, you have three pretty talented guys right there. That's a huge matchup, I think, for any team. It's us because we are playing them this week, but I think that's what the Browns saw and that's what the Colts saw in the first two games that they played. You've got a real talented secondary back there, so I think they have the ability to kind of bring an extra guy because of what they feel like they have behind it. But you've got to be able to capitalize on that, because you know what you're getting for coverage.
Q. You are going to be a little thin on the defensive line this week if DE Cedric Thornton and DE Taylor Hart can't go.
COACH KELLY: Yeah.
Q. Does that affect DE Vinny Curry?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, Vinny would just bump inside and [DE] Brandon Bair would be active.
*Q. So Curry won't play as much standup linebacker *
COACH KELLY: No. It just depends. We have to manage the snaps, but we also have Marcus back. So that gives us a little bit more depth at outside, which helps us with Vinny and the D Line transition. And obviously if both Ced and Taylor can't go, then Brandon would be active.
Q. Is Smith, because he missed all that time, is he still behind or is he caught up?
COACH KELLY: That's a good question for him. He's been back training with us for a couple weeks now and we've built him up. So he's been full and I don't think we've seen anything for that, but that's a good question for Marcus.
Q. What does Bair bring you if he ends up playing?
COACH KELLY: He was active for all 16 games for us last year so he's obviously got a wealth of experience. We just he's a guy that would be active all the time for us. It's just we can't carry that many d-linemen or we would be short at another position. But we feel like he's a key contributor. He's played a lot of football in the past two years here.
Q. On a week like this where something has not gone right, do you devote more time to self scouting?
COACH KELLY: We self scout the same amount every week. All Mondays on both sides of the ball and in special teams, that's the first thing we do is we evaluate the game that we just played and we have to make proper corrections, and then we start to look at what tendencies that we've put together. And obviously, we don't really look at the preseason because what we did in the preseason, we didn't game plan for anybody. A lot of times we ran three, four, five plays, max. So you're starting to get some tendencies now that you've played two games in.
Q. Did you find any tendencies when you watched the film this week?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, that we weren't very successful on first down.
Q. In the sample size you have, how has WR Nelson Agholor been getting open in man coverage?
COACH KELLY: Nelson's done a nice job.
Q. Is taking shots down the field beneficial even if you don't necessarily complete them, in terms of the way defenses are going to look at you and would you worry after the first two games that they are discounting that aspect of your offense?
COACH KELLY: No, I don't think they are discounting it, and I think the reason we were not able to take shots down the field is because of how deep the safeties played. In Atlanta, that's part of kind of the M.O. of their defense.And then in the Dallas game, [Cowboys S J.J.] Wilcox was our lack of a running game didn't devote anybody from the secondary to have to get into the box. So I don't think it has anything to do with taking a shot down the field. What we have to do is be able to run the ball versus a six man box. Now you have to get a safety down in the front. Now you have an opportunity to make him pay for getting an extra guy down there. But we haven't in either game we played, whether it be Dallas or Atlanta, seen an extra defender in the box because we didn't run the ball well enough to get that extra defender in the box. So there was no opportunity to throw the ball down the field. There was a free safety at 15 to 20 yards deep on every play that we played.
Q. I recognize that's a difficult throw or a difficult completion, but that's why you have great quarterbacks is to make difficult throws, right?
COACH KELLY: No. I mean, if we have two high safeties at 20 yards deep and we are throwing the ball deep, then our quarterback is making the wrong decision. That's kind of how we look at it.
*Q. They have got two inside linebackers that they can leave on the field *
COACH KELLY: Yeah, and they do.
Q. You had that situation here when everybody was healthy. How much of an advantage is it to a defense to have that kind of situation?
COACH KELLY: It's a good advantage when your linebackers can match up and I think with both [Jets LB David] Harris and [Jets LB Demario] Davis, speed wise, they match up really well. They are a lot like [Panthers LB Luke] Kuechly and [Panthers LB Thomas] Davis in Carolina that don't come off the field because they can be three down linebackers. Therefore, you don't have to get into a lot of different personnel schemes. You can match up to what people do. When you have someone that can stay on the field in their base defense but also stay on the field in nickel and then you never have to go to dime, I think it frees you up to do a lot of different things. Again, and I talked about it yesterday, they have strength at all three levels. They are really good at the defensive line in [Jets DE Leonard] Williams and [Jets DL Muhammad] Wilkerson, and the two outside linebackers are really good, the two insider linebackers are good, and obviously we have already talked about the secondary. So it allows to you do some different things with the same personnel on the field.
Q. You've mentioned LB Jordan Hicks being a three down linebacker. Is he at the point now where he can be that?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, he played, after Mychal and Kiko went down, he played all three downs on Sunday against the Cowboys and did well for us. We are excited to see what he can do this week.
Q. Have you noticed anything about how the team has reacted to the early adversity this week?
COACH KELLY: I think they have had a good week of training. Obviously Tuesday is a shorter practice session for us. We are only out there for a little bit over an hour. And then yesterday they were really good, so we'll continue to see how it builds, is there consistency in terms of what we are doing. But the first two days have been good.
Q. How about your coaching staff? How have they reacted you mentioned the day after the game that coaching was a part of the problem.
COACH KELLY: Whenever you don't execute or don't do what you're supposed do, then you have to look at everything. I think our coaches understand. You see a lot of guys that have been around for a long time, and you're going to win a lot of games but you're going to lose a lot of games. It's really how you respond when you're in those adverse situations, so I think our guys have experience in doing that and they have been good this week.
Q. Your offense has not been able to go at the tempo is that just a product of getting too many third downs, you're not able to rev it up on first and second down?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, you need to continue to string a couple first downs together to stay on the feel. So when you do that, that's kind of a byproduct of getting able to start to go fast. It's kind of like you're in a car and you only can go so far because there's a stop light 20 yards down the road. You can't stick your foot on the gas and go 60 miles an hour because you're going to have to stop real quick.
Q. Is there a difference in the way your offensive plays against a three-man front compared to a four-man front?
COACH KELLY: No. We just faced two four man fronts in back to back weeks, but no.
Q. Does it change anything from a play-calling standpoint?
COACH KELLY: Yeah, we have different plays we run against 3 4 teams than we run against 4-3 teams.
Q. Running wise?
COACH KELLY: Running wise, protection wise, everything. The spacing of the front kind of dictates what you're doing.
