Ever since the Jets beat the Patriots in Week 2, there's been a debate about whether or not Darrelle Revis shut down Randy Moss all by himself or if he got help from safeties to hold Moss to a harmless four catches. In the general scheme of things it seemed to matter about as much as which member of Pearl Jam was most responsible for a particularly rousing live performance of "Corduroy," but this thing has had tremendous legs.
Revis stuck to his guns, but scouts examined film and found that the Jets used several different approaches to stopping Moss. Some of those approaches involved multiple people making sure that Moss didn't beat them. Finally, Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine admitted that the team did have safety help available to Revis if he needed it.
Let's hope the Jets spent a little time this week practicing for this week's game. Just a fraction of the time spent grabbing credit for what happened in a football game played two months ago, we wouldn't want them to go too crazy trying to actually win a game this weekend or anything.
Revis's base claim was ridiculous because a good portion of the reason why Moss had such pedestrian numbers came from the Jets pass rush. They had Tom Brady under fire all day, the kind of situation that makes it hard to dominate through the air against single, double or triple coverage. The Patriots were also playing without Wes Welker, something that won't be the case this week, which meant that their offense was operating well below their optimum.
Not much chance of that happening on Sunday. The Patriots have been firing on all cylinders, with Moss leading the way with weekly performances as good as any he's put forth in the past. The chances that Revis, good as he is, can stop him all day one-on-one are pretty low and the Jets wouldn't be advised to try that as their chief defensive strategy.
I'm not one who has much issue with the Jets talking, crying or eating hot dogs. Win and those things don't matter. The exception to that would be a screaming need to take credit for something that happened ages ago when preparing for a game that will decide whether or not you play for a relevant team in the final six weeks of the season.
Revis is too good and is too widely praised to still be caring about what happened in September, and should only be concerned with what people are saying about him in November.
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Josh Alper is a writer living in New York City and is a contributor to FanHouse.com and ProFootballTalk.com in addition to his duties for NBCNewYork.com.
