Antonio Allen watched the film from last week’s preseason game against the Bengals and did not like what he saw.
“I didn’t do bad,” the Jets defensive back said. “But it still looked like I needed a lot of work because I hold myself to a high standard of playing good football. It was just average.”
Allen started the game at cornerback, five days after the Jets moved him over from safety. It was his first start at cornerback — ever.
“I still look for more from myself even if I did just play the position for five days,” Allen said. “I could have played a lot better. That’s how I feel.”
Allen gets another crack at it Friday night, when the Jets face the Giants in the annual preseason matchup between the co-tenants of MetLife Stadium.
This is the final tune-up before the regular season for the starters, so the Jets’ search for cornerbacks needs to come up with some answers in this game. Allen will see time at corner, but the Jets have a few more bodies this week. Projected starter Dimitri Patterson is expected to play after missing last week and Darrin Walls has earned himself some playing time with a strong game against the Bengals.
The Jets face the Raiders in 16 days. It seems unlikely Dee Milliner, who suffered a high ankle sprain on Aug. 10, will be back for that game. That injury has left the Jets mixing and matching in the secondary, searching for a lineup that can cover effectively.
Last week, the Bengals’ starting offense carved them up, with quarterback Andy Dalton going a perfect 8-for-8 for 144 yards. Allen hopes to prove he can be the solution if Milliner is out for a while.
“This is a big opportunity,” Allen said. “If I go out there and do what I’m supposed to do and have success at that position, then you’ve got a guy who can play multiple positions. That would be good for me and my family and the team. I’m looking forward to trying to get better and get better at my techniques at the position.”
The Giants might be the perfect team for the Jets’ secondary to look good against. Giants quarterback Eli Manning is 1-for-9 passing for 6 yards in the team’s last two preseason games.
The starting receivers for the Giants have been invisible. Whomever Allen is matched up against will be an easier assignment than last week, when he was asked to cover A.J. Green.
The Jets coaches were pleased with how Allen fared. He gave up one 35-yard pass to Green and got beaten on an incompletion later in the game, but had no other major mistakes.
“For the first time over there, he did OK,” Jets defensive coordinator Dennis Thurman said. “He’s long. He’s athletic. He’s talented. We have to get him up to speed on some of his technique and fundamentals, but he’s working at it. It’s not something that’s just going to come. It’s something he’s going to have to work at and we’re going to have to be patient. We’ll have to work with him, but I feel like he has a chance to be successful because he is a good athlete and he can cover man-to-man.”
The entire secondary will be under the microscope again Friday.
“I just think from start to finish, I would like to see us compete and play well,” coach Rex Ryan said. “I’d love to get some turnovers, that would be outstanding. Again, I think our guys are playing hard. You know that game [against the Bengals] obviously started poorly to say the least. We had some blown coverages, some communication errors, so I would like to clean that stuff up. Getting beat physically is one thing, but trying to clean up some of the other things, that quite honestly up to that point I thought we had done a pretty good job of it. We have to get back on track with our communication and playing our proper techniques.”