Jets switch pilots again
Parcells gives Testaverde nod at QB against Patriots
Posted: Thursday October 15, 1998 01:36 AM
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At least for this week, Testaverde will lead the Jets AP |
HEMPSTEAD, New York (AP) -- Glenn Foley's poor outing
in St. Louis last weekend has, for now, cost him his job as New York Jets quarterback.
Vinny Testaverde, 2-0 in Foley's injury-related absence earlier this
season, will start Monday's critical game at New England. Foley, 0-3 as a
starter -- he missed the team's two victories with a rib injury -- will be
on the bench.
"I don't feel like Glenn is back to the way he was before," coach Bill
Parcells said Wednesday. "I told him he will get an opportunity to try and
sharpen himself up."
Foley began the season with a 415-yard, three-touchdown effort in a 36-30
overtime loss at San Francisco. But he struggled in the second half of Game
2, a loss to Baltimore, and was awful -- 5-for-15 for 76 yards, with two
interceptions and a fumble -- at St. Louis before Testaverde came on late
in the third period.
Parcells deliberately held Foley out of the previous week's game with
Miami, even though Foley claimed he was fully recovered from the rib
problem. He then reinstated Foley as the starter for the Rams game.
Now, it's Testaverde's job, at least for this week. | Tough call?
| Bill Parcells is starting Vinny
Testaverde at quarterback on Monday
instead of Glenn Foley. Here's
how
the two compare statistically. | | Statistic | Testaverde | Foley | Record
TDs
INTs
Comp.
%
Yards
| 2-0
6
1
56.3
484
| 0-3
4
6
54.3
738
|
| |
"I just look at the situation as Glenn just isn't quite what he was early
in the season right now and I can't pinpoint why," Parcells said. "We're at
a point in there season where we have some tough games, and if we don't do
something pretty soon, we will not be a factor."
Testaverde is looking at the current QB order as temporary. The 12-year
veteran, a starter for most of his career in Tampa Bay, Cleveland and
Baltimore, isn't looking beyond Foxboro Stadium.
"I look at it as one game," said the quarterback who signed as a free agent
with the Jets in the offseason. "I haven't been around Coach Parcells
enough to know what he's going to do. That doesn't concern me. Playing good
football is what concerns me.
"I don't expect all of this to be on my shoulders. We have a very capable
offense. I am more concerned about what the Patriots are doing. If we do
our jobs, we can win the game."
Foley, in his fifth pro season, has had a rough career. He was a
third-stringer for the first three years, barely getting any action. He's
also been injury-prone, and those injuries not only have cost him playing
time, but twice have contributed to losing the starter's job.
He spoke mysteriously on Wednesday about "other factors" that contributed
to his demotion. He might have referred to a perception that Parcells'
assistant coaches on offense, Dan Henning and Charlie Weis, don't have as
much confidence in him as they do in Testaverde.
"You do what you're told and go about it that way," Foley said. "If you
don't do well, you don't win. You look at the circumstances and everything
going on around you. I am one guy trying to win."
But he also admitted that after his poor showing in St. Louis, he deserved
to be set down.
"I was terrible and I cost the team big in that game," he said. "I really
deserved to get benched. When you don't play well, you don't play and I'm
not playing this week. That's just the way it works."
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