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FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — To borrow a phrase they remember hearing somewhere, the Patriots can’t wait to face the Jets this fall.
Defying Bill Belichick’s zipped-lips media policy, veteran wide receiver Deion Branch mocked the Jets yesterday for their on-field antics immediately after January’s 28-21 divisional playoff win at Gillette Stadium.
“Those actions that went down after the game? Well, you know, it wasn’t the Super Bowl,” Branch, his voice dripping with sarcasm, told The Post in a post-practice interview.
From Bart Scott’s famous “Can’t wait!” postgame exclamation to ESPN to Braylon Edwards’ midfield backflip to numerous Jets running around the field mimicking airplane wings, Branch said all of it went right into the Patriots’ memory bank.
Judging from Branch’s winking smile, those shenanigans no doubt will be recalled in explicit detail in the Patriots’ locker room when the bitter AFC East rivals meet again Oct. 9 in a Week 5 matchup here and once more Nov. 13 at New Meadowlands Stadium.
Asked if what the Jets did would be brought up those two weeks, Branch laughed and said: “They may be.”
Of course, the Jets’ response is that they were merely answering the Patriots’ mocking displays in the second half of a 45-3 New England rout on the same field barely a month before the playoff upset.
Branch had amnesia yesterday about the Patriots’ regular-season actions, but what the Jets did was recalled vividly.
“Oh, you remember it,” Branch said.
Branch, who had blasted the Jets immediately after the playoff game for what he labeled “classless” behavior, also questioned the motive of Rex Ryan yesterday for recently inviting the rest of the NFL to join Gang Green in beating the Patriots this season.
While some might have taken that as a sign of respect, Branch wondered if the Jets’ talkative coach was subtly insulting New England instead.
“You could take that as a little sarcasm, too,” said Branch, a former Super Bowl MVP. “It could be either one. It’s funny to us. We sit back and laugh [at his constant Patriots-related comments]. I don’t know what he means by it. You just have to expect the unexpected with [Ryan].”
Not surprisingly, Branch was the only Patriot to return fire yesterday. Belichick has steadfastly refused to respond to the verbal fireworks coming from Florham Park, and ex-Jets running back Danny Woodhead acted as if he had never heard of his former team when it was mentioned.
“That was last year,” Woodhead said.
Judging from Belichick’s surprising flurry of roster moves and even a possible switch in defensive schemes after a 14-2 regular season, the loss to the Jets seems to have been quite the motivating factor in Foxborough.
Not that Branch or the Patriots will admit it, however.
“They don’t sit around [in the front office] and strategically try to base everything off the Jets,” Branch said. “It’s all about, ‘What can we do to better our football team?’ Nothing that’s done around here is based just on the Jets.”