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FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- When cornerback Darrelle Revis strolled through the New York Jets' locker room Wednesday, reporters left him alone. Instead, they put the full-court press on rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, asking what he thought about a possible shootout Sunday in New Orleans.
Sanchez wasn't sure, but he doesn't have the answers to beating the Saints. Revis might. The third-year cornerback not only is an important part to one of the league's premier defenses -- he's one of the top young players at his position, so good that he's beginning to drift into the Nnamdi Asomugha stratosphere.
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| Revis' solid play held Randy Moss to just four catches for 24 yards in the Jets' Week 2 victory. (AP) |
Which gets me back to why Revis could play a critical role in the outcome of Sunday's best game. The Saints throw the ball, and they throw it a lot. In fact, they're the best passing team in the business, just as they were the best in 2008. A year ago. Drew Brees had 10 300-yard passing games. This year, he has two in three starts.
You want to beat the Saints, you stop Brees. And you stop Brees with Revis, not Sanchez.
"If I had to pick any cornerback in this league to start my team with, it would be Darrelle Revis," said Jets' wide receiver David Clowney. "I think he thinks he can cover anybody in this league."
That's because he can. And he proves it each week.
In the season opener, he shut down Houston's Andre Johnson. The All-Pro wide receiver had four catches for 35 yards and no touchdowns. In Week 2, he bottled up New England's Randy Moss. The numbers were similar, with Moss finishing with four catches (only one in the second half) for 24 yards and no scores. When the Patriots absolutely, positively had to have him deliver, they could not find him.
In Week 3, nobody from Tennessee made a dent, and I'm beginning to see a trend here. When Revis steps on the field, opposing receivers disappear. That's why he can tip the scales in Sunday's game, with Revis locked on the Saints' top receiver Marques Colston.
Colston leads the league in touchdown catches, but hasn't yet had to play Revis. Sunday's game is, as Revis put it, "a test for us to prove what we've been trying to prove all year" but Revis doesn't have to prove anything to anybody. He is one of the game's top young cornerbacks, and a Pro Bowler and All-Pro waiting to happen.
"He's getting better and better every year," Clowney said. "And you can tell he's getting better every season. He's going to be somebody special. He didn't get drafted in the first round for nothing. He has a lot of great talent."
There are a lot of guys out there with great talent. There just aren't a lot who can snuff out Johnson and Moss in successive weeks. Those performances gained the attention of a national media that is waking up to Revis and wondering when he joins veterans like Asmougha, Tennessee's Cortland Finnegan and Denver's Champ Bailey as an elite cornerback. If you ask me, it's happening with each week.
"I don't get into that," said Revis. "I'm a good friend of Nnamdi and Cortland. I don't want to put up a competition with them. We're like a brotherhood because we play cornerback and talk a lot of stuff, so I'll let reporters rate whom they want to rate. People have their opinions of who's number one and who's number two. I just go with the flow."
The flow has been more like a Jet stream, with New York unbeaten and at the top of the AFC East. For all the attention given to Sanchez, it is the team's defense -- not its rookie quarterback -- behind the surge. That's not a knock on Sanchez -- he's been surprisingly resilient, limiting his errors and making big plays when and where they were needed. But the backbone of the club is a defense that didn't allow a touchdown until last weekend and a secondary that holds opposing quarterbacks to a 47.9 completion percentage -- the only pass defense in the league to check in under 50 percent.
That's the good news. The bad: The Jets' defensive backs are hurting, with cornerbacks Donald Strickland and Lito Sheppard and safety Jim Leonhard sitting out Wednesday's practice and Revis and safety Kerry Rhodes limited.
"I'll be OK," said Revis. "I'll be playing."
When Revis is OK, so is the Jets' pass defense. In fact, it's almost impregnable, and pass the stat sheet, please. Houston's Matt Schaub did nothing against New York, then threw for seven touchdowns and 657 yards in his next two starts. New England's Tom Brady had his first sub .500 passing performance since the last time he met a Rex Ryan defense, which was December of 2007 in Baltimore. Tennessee's Kerry Collins finished last weekend's loss with 13 straight incompletions and looked frazzled by game's end.
Hey, it happens, and Revis is a big reason. He's the guy who takes on opponents' best receivers, and he's the guy who puts them in three-hour lockdowns. Johnson wasn't Houston's top receiver against the Jets; Owen Daniels was. Moss wasn't the Patriots' top receiver against the Jets; Julian Edelman was. Connect the dots, people. Opposing quarterbacks may avoid Revis, but it's time you started paying attention.
"The game is rough," said Revis. "Going against some of these guys isn't easy. You just got to keep on having that mentality. I know every team has a star wide receiver, so I just have to get in that mindset of, 'I'm done with Moss, let's move on. I'm done with the next person, let's move on.'"
Revis and his teammates plan to get physical with New Orleans this weekend, but what else is new? The Saints have a fleet of wide receivers with size, and Revis and others will try to jam them to disrupt the timing of the NFL's finest-tuned passing attack and keep Brees holding the football. Buffalo did it, and it worked. Only one problem: The Bills then allowed 222 yards rushing and lost.
The Jets don't plan on making the same mistake, and for more information, check with Revis, not the team's rookie quarterback.
"You can't relax on these guys," Revis said. "You can't relax during the week, thinking this is just some fifth-string wide receiver [I face]. These are some of the best receivers in the game, and some of them probably are future Hall of Famers. So you've got to study these guys well and focus in on them. You can't make mistakes on the field because that's when they make great catches.
"One thing I study very well is body language. That's one thing that gets me over the edge, because it's on film a lot -- like which foot is up or how [a receiver] is acting during a run play. On a run, he might be standing straight up where, on a pass, his back is bent more and he's ready to go. I just try to focus on that. Plus, I do have a little athletic ability where I can get away with some things. You have to take this stuff personally with these guys because you're going up against some of the best."
If the Jets are going to stay unbeaten, if they're going to defeat New Orleans, I'll take my chances with Revis. He shut down Johnson and Moss and he can stop Colston. He didn't say that -- I did. Revis is going to be a cornerback for you to admire and quarterbacks to avoid for years, and I'd start watching him now.
"Every day and age you have somebody who excels in their games," said Clowney. "Champ [Bailey] had his time; -- now it's somebody else's turn. Personally, I believe it's Darrelle's time."
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