Jets coach Rex Ryan says Tom Brady doesn’t prepare as much as Peyton Manning. Shaun Ellis says Brady taunts the Jets with his finger-pointing whenever he scores a touchdown. Antonio Cromartie calls Brady a nasty word and adds he hates him.
All this talk coming out of the Jets prior to their playoff Armageddon against the Patriots, seemingly designed to get under the skin of Brady.
They’d have been better off saving their breath.
“I don’t think it’s wise,” Giants defensive tackle Barry Cofield told The Post. “Brady will only prepare harder this week. It accomplishes nothing for the Jets players.”
This isn’t simply another opinion from the peanut gallery. Cofield was a starter on a Giants defense that beat Brady and the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII, part of a defense that saw fit to praise and show respect to Brady before the game and then pummel him as soon as the whistle blew.
Thinking back on all the pleasant memories of the staggering 17-14 upset to deny the Patriots a perfect season, Cofield recalls one specific aspect to Brady’s game that perhaps the Jets do not fully realize.
“His toughness is underrated,” Cofield said. “We kept hitting him and he kept getting back up.”
The 2007 Giants, though, never dared to tweak Brady before the game. The closest they came was when linebacker and defensive captain Antonio Pierce referred to Brady as “a prince” in assessing his royal status in the league.
“There’s a difference between talking trash and just being sarcastic,” Pierce, now an ESPN analyst, told The Post. “With the Jets, they’re bashing the Patriots, they’re calling Tom Brady not nice words. I definitely think there’s a line. When you sit there and you’re talking about the best player on the team, probably the best player in the NFL and you’re motivating a guy who is pretty intense as a quarterback, I don’t know if that’s a good thing. With the Jets, it’s getting to the point where it’s disrespect.”
Unlike this suspect Jets defensive line, the Giants in 2007 employed a dominating defensive front featuring three pass rushers in Michael Strahan, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck who were able to maintain consistent pressure on Brady. In the Super Bowl, the Giants sacked Brady five times, hit him nine times, completely obliterated the running game (45 yards) and limited a team that averaged nearly 37 points to 14.
Brady is a constant, but these Patriots are not as prolific as that group.
In Cofield’s view, there are three key ingredients that a defense must have in order to cook up an upset and contain the Patriots: “Don’t completely neglect the run game. They are a passing team but can and will run when given the chance. Your defensive backs must jam and challenge the receivers at the line. When they do complete passes tackle them. This limits big plays. Hit, harass, and sack Brady without compromising your pass defense.
If you can pressure him with four and occasionally three you may have a chance.”
Pierce agrees, saying, “It sounds crazy because of how good he is as a quarterback but you have to make them one dimensional. You have to know every play they cannot run the ball, they have to pass.”
The Jets and Patriots split the two-game series this season but the overwhelming memory is the 45-3 thrashing the Jets took last month.
“I think it’s a very competitive game,” Pierce said. “I don’t see it 45-3. I see a very competitive, mid-20s game and I see it going to the Pats.”