Take it from a Hall of Fame wide receiver and a future Hall of Fame cornerback, who have five Super Bowl rings between them: Sunday’s AFC Championship game could hinge on the showdown between top Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis and Colts No. 1 wideout Reggie Wayne.
Listen closely, though, and NFL Network analysts Michael Irvin and Deion Sanders suggest that Revis goes into the mano-a-mano with the psychological upper hand.
The Revis-Wayne matchup pits perhaps the best player on Gang Green’s top-ranked defense against the primary target in the Peyton Manning-directed Indianapolis passing attack. The list of weapons Revis has neutralized this season runs deep, including a shutdown job on Wayne (three catches, 33 yards) before the receiver was pulled from the teams’ Week 16 meeting, a 29-15 Jets victory.
Irvin said the onus falls on the Colts to show they are not afraid of challenging Revis.
“In the first matchup, he didn’t get as many looks,” Irvin said of Wayne. “This game is different. The reality is Peyton Manning has to play the next five or six years with [Wayne] being his No. 1 target. He cannot let this guy believe that there is somebody on the other side that will stop him from throwing the ball to him.”
The impact of their duel could be felt up and down both sidelines, Irvin said, recalling instances when his Cowboys prepared to play against Sanders, a Falcon and 49er before joining Dallas for two titles.
“These are conversations that I’ve had with [former Dallas offensive coordinator] Norv Turner or [former Cowboys quarterback] Troy Aikman when we had to prepare to play somebody like Deion,” Irvin said. “We cannot let the rest of our team see that we are not going to go at someone. … And you can’t allow that to break not only that receiver but the rest of the team.”
Sanders was adamant that the Colts will try to establish Wayne early in the contest, after Manning waited until midway through the second quarter to target him during a plodding divisional-round win over the Ravens on Saturday. He, too, worried about the specter of Revis forcing the Colts to shy away from Wayne.
“They can’t wait that time here to get Reggie Wayne involved,” he said. “It’s going to be a great matchup. You’re going to have to build Reggie’s confidence up right off the bat. It’s probably going to be an inside route, something safe.”
But it’s not just Indy shaking in their cleats, according to Irvin, who said he thinks the shifty, 6-foot Wayne could present a more difficult assignment than tall wideouts such as AFC East opponents Randy Moss and Terrell Owens.
“He’s quick in and out of his breaks, unlike some of the taller, other receivers that Revis had to work with,” Irvin said. “[Wayne] is going to be that elite combination of strength and speed for Darrelle Revis.”
And vice versa.
jlehman@nypost.com