Pelzman: Jets defense not as basic as it looks

[ret2ski]

Pelzman: Jets defense not as basic as it looks

Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Record

A questioner suggested to Rex Ryan after the Jets’ win over Buffalo on Sunday that his defense simply had lined up and beaten the Bills without any tricks.

Ryan reacted as if Adam Sandler had just asked him to do another take of their scene after doing it perfectly.

"You’d need to bring that up to [Buffalo quarterback Ryan] Fitzpatrick," Ryan said angrily, "and ask him if he saw anything unusual."

Ryan added that Fitzpatrick threw into "trap coverage" on his first interception, to linebacker Calvin Pace. "Maybe it’s not as vanilla as it looks."

More like rocky road mint chocolate chip cookie dough, with a pistachio or two thrown in. Ryan and defensive coordinator Mike Pettine have done an excellent job this season in varying their defenses, especially in passing situations. The Jets aren’t blitzing nearly as much as they did in 2009, Ryan’s first season as head coach.

Instead, they often are using the threat of the blitz to fool opposing passers. That’s what happened on opening night, when the Jets used Pettine’s call of "Jet Mike Mix’’ late in the game to bait Dallas’ Tony Romo into thinking he had Darrelle Revis in single coverage on Dez Bryant. Granted, throwing at Revis in single coverage isn’t the smartest move in the first place, but even dumber when the Jets had safety Brodney Pool in the area providing deep help so Revis could play underneath Bryant and jump the route.

Ryan and Revis termed it a "trap" call afterward.

They also fooled San Diego’s Philip Rivers into thinking they were in man-to-man on the pivotal ricochet interception by Revis, who was in position to grab the carom off Vincent Jackson because he was in zone. Both of those Revis picks set up go-ahead fourth-quarter scores.

Pace’s interception Sunday wasn’t a game-breaker, but certainly was unusual. He got only the third pick of his nine-year career because he was in intermediate zone coverage in the vicinity of wideout David Nelson, the intended target. Pace normally is an edge pass rusher.

So can the Jets confuse New England’s Tom Brady on Sunday? They held him in check in their January playoff victory by rarely rushing more than four and flooding the secondary with defenders. Brady looked out of sorts at times in the Patriots’ loss to the Giants. He has 10 interceptions through eight games, very un-Brady-like numbers.

"Obviously, it’s a copycat league," Jets linebacker Aaron Maybin said when asked about what defenses are doing against Brady and the Pats. "You’ve seen teams playing a lot of man coverage, trying to throw the receivers off those short and intermediate routes; keeping somebody deep to make sure that they can’t throw the deep ball, and it’s rattled them a little bit.

"You’ve got to also recognize that they’re doing self-scout, too," Maybin said. "They understand what these things are and they’re going to be trying to correct those mistakes."

It could be a fascinating chess match Sunday night.