Steve Serby

Steve Serby

NFL

Giants to Jets: Get pressure on matured Cam Newton

The Giants can tell the Jets all about the night they not only tugged on Superman’s cape, they ripped it off, and turned Cam Newton into The Incredible Sulk on the bench.

It is a tape Rex Ryan should show his desperate Jets as they steel themselves for Newton and the Panthers on Sunday in Carolina, because it provides the blueprint for success:

Stop the run.

Get in Newton’s face.

Spy Cam.

Start fast and make him play catch up.

Seahawks sensation Russell Wilson is the Giants’ problem Sunday.

Newton is the Jets’ problem.

“Yeah, and it’s a bad problem to have, especially right now,” Giants linebacker Jon Beason, the former Panther, told The Post. “[The Panthers are coming] off a disappointing big-game loss down in New Orleans, a very tough place to play. … I know how those guys are wired over there, and they’ll be ready to play, so … it’s going to be a tough task for the Jets.”

Newton is the Jets’ problem because he is not the same quarterback who was humbled 36-7 in Charlotte early in the 2012 season.

“He looks a whole lot more of a confident guy, he’s not making stupid mistakes. … I thought last year he was more of a showboat,” Justin Tuck told The Post. “This year he seems like he’s all about the business of winning football games.”

Newton gave the Giants the business 38-0 in Week 3.

“I think he’s a more athletic [Ben] Roethlisberger,” Tuck said, “and I think this year he’s played smarter, too. He’s not making the silly mistakes and the silly interceptions, carrying the ball loose and getting stripped from behind like you see in previous years with him. He’s protecting the ball, and if it’s not there, he’s throwing it away. He’s played smarter.”

Tuck considers the 2013 Newton an MVP candidate.

“When I look at MVP candidates, I look at guys that if you take him off that team, what kind of team are they?” Tuck said.

The Jets are No. 2 in the league in run defense — behind the Panthers — so that’s a plus for them.

Tuck’s advice for the Jets: “It’s easier said than done, but stop the run game, and put a lot of pressure on him,” he said.

Indeed, this season against the Giants, the Panthers rushed for 194 yards, with Newton (15-for-27 passing, 223 yards, 3 TDs, 1 INT) contributing 45 yards and a touchdown on the ground. In the 2012 game, the Panthers rushed for only 60 yards, including six and a touchdown in six carries by Newton (16-for-30, 0 TDs, 3 INTs).

“If he’s able to get his play-action pass going, you can’t rush him because you’re sitting on your heels thinking, ‘run, run, run’ and by the time you trigger the pass, he’s already completed a ball or he’s already five yards down the field past you,” Tuck said. “So it always starts with making sure he doesn’t have a two-way sword.”

Muhammad Wilkerson is the Jets’ best pass rusher, but it is unlikely the Jets can get in Newton’s face the way the Big Blue pass rushers did a year ago.

“I think the pressure we put on him rattled him a little bit,” Prince Amukamara said, “and I think it was a great scheme, we covered all the windows that he wanted to put the ball in.”

Jayron Hosley had one of the three picks against Newton on a ball that deflected off the hands of Brandon LaFell.

“The D-line got to him early, and he got a little reckless with the ball,” Hosley said.

The Jets have enough speed on defense to spy Cam with a Sheldon Richardson or a Demario Davis or an Anthony Allen.

“It was a bunch of us,” Tuck said. “We tried to change up the spies, because obvious if you have one guy spying, they can pick into that pretty quickly.”

The Giants intended to spy Cam this year.

“We didn’t really get a chance to,” Tuck said. “They rushed the ball pretty well against us.”

The biggest fly in the ointment is the Geno Smith Jets lack the firepower to jump out quickly and force Newton to play from behind for long stretches.

“With an offense like that, you get ’em behind, they’re not built to score points quickly, they’re built to wear you down, and things like that,” Tuck said. “It was just kind of a perfect storm for us … kind of like what they did to us this year.”

Beason was there when Newton arrived as the first overall pick of the 2011 draft.

“Right away, you noticed the physical specimen that he is,” Beason said. “His ability to run and throw the football was impressive right away. And I remember during the preseason, offensively things weren’t going well. We were struggling, and he was still learning the offense, very complex Rob Chudzinski offense. And then all of a sudden, Week 1, we’re at Arizona, and he goes out and lights it up. So then you knew he had the IT factor, he’s a gamer, and that was impressive to see.”

And Beason was there for Newton’s struggles at the start of his sophomore season.

“What you have to learn in this league is that people are going to scheme you,” Beason said. “They’re going to learn a little bit more about you, and you have to evolve as well. And the beauty of it was to see how things didn’t start well, but they finished well. He transitioned well, and by midseason he was playing at a high level again as opposed to just kind of falling off completely.”

Newton isn’t the speed threat RGIII was as a rookie.

“Cam’s more elusive because of his physical stature — it’s hard to tackle a guy that big and fast,” Beason said. “And, I think he throws the ball just as good if not better than all those guys.”

The Giants players cut the interviews short so they could get back to preparing for Wilson, Marshawn Lynch and the Seahawks.

The Jets have been warned.