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December 16, 2007

Transcript: Jets safety Kerry Rhodes' press conference

Coming in as such underdogs, do you feel like you guys proved a point today?
We came out and fought hard. We kept the game close. We had a chance to make plays to make it even closer, but we couldn’t get closer than where we were. We had opportunities.

How do you feel like your game plan worked?
We played pretty well on defense. We had a good game plan coming into the game. We knew some of the things we could do to slow them down and it held, to a point, in the game, so we weren’t surprised.

Do you take it personally when people say you’re going to lose by 50 or 60?
If you have pride, you’re definitely not going to let them-or want them-to say that. People coming into the game were saying they were going to score 70, not 50. We just came out on defense, and we were excited, playing around, jumping and having fun. We pretty much held them in check. We pretty much had a good game.

Did you hear anything interesting from the fans?
On the way here people in the neighborhoods, when we were coming to the stadium, they were doing the whole spy-the camera thing. Somebody threw a plastic rat on the field. So there were plenty of things going on.

Do you feel like this was a lost opportunity and that you left plays on the field?
We definitely left plays on the field. I’m sure they probably feel the same way. We had opportunities. And at the end of the game we still had an opportunity to make it a lot closer than it was, so we definitely left plays on the field.

What were the things you guys did consistently today?
I think we did a good job of moving around and making [Tom] Brady’s checks harder for him. He didn’t [have] it simple; He had to go through a lot of possessions just to get into a good place. I think that would probably be the thing we did.

To confirm, it was a plastic rat?
Yeah it was plastic. I thought it was real. Somebody said there was a rat and I thought it was real and I was like, “that’s tough.” I didn’t see it. I just heard about it.

Do you feel like the team has Eric Mangini’s back?
I would hope so. We came out and fought and that’s the mentality of this team and that’s the mentality of our head coach. We like to come in and fight and be aggressive, and he doesn’t really like to take anything from anybody, so that’s the way we play the game.

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