Here’s how Patriots coach Bill Belichick summed up the familiarity between his team and the Jets: “It’s one of those deals where they know that we know that they know that we know.”
Got it?
Sunday’s meeting will be the seventh time these two teams have played since Rex Ryan became head coach in 2009. It is the third time they will meet this calendar year. These teams know each other better than Kris Humphries and Kim Kardashian.
In the six meetings since Ryan came into the rivalry, it is an even split at 3-3. If you remove the one blowout, the 45-3 Patriots win last December, the teams have played to a near draw, with the Jets outscoring the Patriots just 107-105.
With these two teams familiarity breeds not only contempt but a war of wits between the coaching staffs. These teams punch and then counter-punch every time they meet, adding wrinkles to wrinkles and adjustments to adjustments.
“If you have success against them, next time you play them you can’t take the week off and say, ‘We’re just going to come out and play the same plan,’ ’’ Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said. “Because they’ll have made adjustments to it. But at the same time, you don’t want to stray away from, ‘Here’s what we did well, why should we be different?’ So it’s a blend, and bit of a balancing act.”
When the Jets beat the Patriots in the playoffs last year, they did it using a flood of defensive backs to baffle quarterback Tom Brady. The Jets used a similar plan in October, and the Patriots countered by giving running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis the ball 27 times for 136 yards. On the Patriots’ last drive of that game, the Jets expected the ball to be in Brady’s hands, but the Patriots ran Green-Ellis successfully and chewed up the clock before kicking a field goal to ice the 30-21 win.
The moves and countermoves leave both team’s coaching staffs searching for something new to show the opponent.
“It’s tough because they’ve seen everything already,” Jets safety Eric Smith said. “It’s hard to put in new stuff. You can kind of change the way you do some things depending on what they’ve been doing this year but they’ve pretty much seen everything already.”
Belichick, of course, is at his best coming up with defensive curveballs. Jets right guard Brandon Moore first played against the Patriots on Dec. 20, 2003, during their Super Bowl heyday. Moore said the Patriots defense has evolved as players like Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison have departed. The Patriots are more of a 4-3 team now than 3-4.
Matt Slauson, the Jets’ left guard, said whatever the Jets see on film that week from the Patriots usually changes on game day.
”They’ll play every team leading up to our game the same way every time and then when they get to us they throw everything at us — every front possible,” Slauson said. “It’s evident that Belichick wants to beat us so badly every time.”
The feeling is mutual from the Jets’ coaching staff. They know that Belichick knows that they know that he knows …
“There’s always a couple wrinkles here and there,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said. “They do what they do but they always disguise things, move some parts around. That’s what’s fun about the chess match. That’s what makes it so hard to start fast against them because there are always a couple of surprises here and there. I’m sure [Belichick will] have a couple of things for us this week.”