When does a football game become a chess match?
When Rex Ryan’s defense plays Tom Brady’s Patriots offense.
The last time the Jets and Patriots played, Ryan’s defense delivered a convincing checkmate to Tom Brady and the Patriots’ offense, beating them 28-21 in the AFC divisional playoffs at Gillette Stadium.
In that game, which wasn’t as close as the final score indicated, Brady looked confused by what the Jets defense was doing to his offense, daring him to throw the ball to his outside receivers as they flooded the middle of the field with a travelling party of defensive backs.
The Jets defenders were physical with the New England receivers, disrupting their routes and Brady’s rhythm. The plan was stunningly effective — even against Wes Welker, Brady’s favorite target.
Welker’s numbers this season are astounding. His NFL-leading 40 receptions lead the next-best total by 13 catches. That has him on pace for 160 receptions, which would break Marvin Harrison’s NFL record of 143 set in 2002 and his 616 receiving yards puts him on pace for 2,464, which would obliterate Jerry Rice’s single-season record of 1,848.
The burning question as the two teams brace for rematch tomorrow at Gillette is whether the Jets stick with what worked so well for them last January or shake it up because they figure the Patriots will have adjusted.
“You have to play the chess game with them and not allocate your resources the same way all the time and allow them to draw a beat on it,” Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “The easy thing to say is it worked the last time we played them and then just blow the dust off of that one and use it.
“There’ll certainly be elements of it, concepts from it. We’ve got to make sure that we kind of forge ahead with some new things, but at the same time not get away from what’s been successful against them in the past. There’s no team that’s better in the NFL at figuring out your plan, making adjustments and then rolling up some yardage on you as the game goes on.
“That’s why the plan has to be deep, you have to have the ability to change by the series, change by the half, because if you’re giving them consistent looks, they’re too precise, they’re too good.”
One of the buzzwords heard this week from Ryan and Pettine has been “multiple,” referring to many different defensive personnel packages being run on and off the field an effort to make Brady uncomfortable.
Former Jets head coach, and current ESPN analyst, Eric Mangini told The Post yesterday: “If I was New England, I would run no-huddle against the Jets the whole game, because it’s so fast the Jets can’t sub so they don’t have the variety [of looks] and it slows down what you can do defensively.
“I look for the Patriots to do that, because that Jets defense has had trouble with the no-huddle.”
Mangini said he doesn’t believe the Jets will deviate much from the defensive plan they used in their playoff win over New England, saying: “I think they’re going to do the same things.”
“If you look at the comments from ‘Cro’ (cornerback Antonio Cromartie), he said they’re going to match up on the outside and disrupt their receivers, and that’s exactly what they did last time,” Mangini said. “They kept it tight inside the numbers and played man-to-man on the outside and said, ‘You can’t beat us.’
“They were forcing Tom to throw it outside on ‘Cro’ and (Darrelle) Revis and I don’t think that’s going to change. I don’t see why they wouldn’t do the same thing.”