Our New York Jets led the league in total defense in 2009. The biggest reason for this was star CB Darrelle Revis. Revis shut down receiver after receiver in '09, yielding very few catches. What made Revis's production truly amazing is the way he was utilized by Rex Ryan. Revis moved around the field to take the #1 receiver the whole game. The Jets played a ton of man coverage, and Revis made sure that the #1 receiver didn't just line up against a bad corner. He took care of the top receiver on every play, and he shut them all down.
There is a concept in the NFL of an elite CB shutting down one side of the field. What that means is that the opposing QB is afraid to throw to that side and instead throws to the other side. What that really means is that the opposing team just puts their top two receivers on the other side of the field and lets them pick on the inferior members of the secondary who play there. This doesn't help the team nearly as much as football announcers and analysts claim it does.
Brilliantly, the Jets avoided this problem with Revis by having him shade and shut down the top receiver every play. QBs were not able to rely on their top weapon, because Revis shut his man down on every play. But QBs couldn't altogether stop throwing to their top guy, and as a result Revis was thrown on much more than any other good CB. But in the end, it did not yield good results for opposing QBs, as they threw numerous incompletions and some interceptions and their top receiver was unable to provide any production.
This unique strategy makes Revis's 2009 season the most valuable defensive season EVER IN NFL HISTORY. Never before had a player impacted as many plays as Revis did. No pass rusher or linebacker ever affected the game as much as Revis who affected every throwing play. Perhaps Lawrence Taylor was more talented. Perhaps Ray Lewis is more popular. Perhaps Deion Sanders was a more talented, faster CB than Revis and perhaps he was better at interceptingthe opposing QB. But there was nobody on defense who provided as much value as Revis did last season. Ever.
This means a lot for the rest of 2010. For whatever reason, Rex has not employed the same strategy this season that he used last year. There was Revis's holdout and injury, and also it seems that Rex felt that with another Pro Bowl CB in Cromartie, there was no need to put Revis on the top receiver. But Rex saw the light at halftime of Sunday's loss against the Packers. In the first half. In the first half of the game, Rex put Revis on the outside on the right side of the field and Cromartie on the outside on the left side of the field. The Packers countered by putting their inferior receivers on the outside and using their top receiver Greg Jennings in the slot to be covered by Drew Coleman and Dwight Lowery. He made some big catches including a 31 yard catch that set up the field goal (when Lowery played zonewhile everyone else was playing man). At halftime, Rex put Revis on Jennings and he was pretty much handled from there. With Revis showing that he is 100%, we can expect him to be covering the top receiver from now on (with Cromartie on #2). In fact, Rex said in today's press conference that Revis will "generally" be on Calvin Johnson during this Sunday's game in Detroit. This will allow Revis to go back to being the most valuable player in NFL history, and will allow Cromartie to take lesser receivers where he will be less prone to giving up the couple of catches he gives up each game and more likely to make some interceptions. From here on out, expect the Jets defense to round into form and be the best defense in the NFL (even better than the Giants!) as we all expect them to be.
J! E! T! S! JETS! JETS! JETS!
This unique strategy makes Revis's 2009 season the most valuable defensive season EVER IN NFL HISTORY. Never before had a player impacted as many plays as Revis did. No pass rusher or linebacker ever affected the game as much as Revis who affected every throwing play. Perhaps Lawrence Taylor was more talented. Perhaps Ray Lewis is more popular. Perhaps Deion Sanders was a more talented, faster CB than Revis and perhaps he was better at interceptingthe opposing QB. But there was nobody on defense who provided as much value as Revis did last season. Ever.
This means a lot for the rest of 2010. For whatever reason, Rex has not employed the same strategy this season that he used last year. There was Revis's holdout and injury, and also it seems that Rex felt that with another Pro Bowl CB in Cromartie, there was no need to put Revis on the top receiver. But Rex saw the light at halftime of Sunday's loss against the Packers. In the first half. In the first half of the game, Rex put Revis on the outside on the right side of the field and Cromartie on the outside on the left side of the field. The Packers countered by putting their inferior receivers on the outside and using their top receiver Greg Jennings in the slot to be covered by Drew Coleman and Dwight Lowery. He made some big catches including a 31 yard catch that set up the field goal (when Lowery played zonewhile everyone else was playing man). At halftime, Rex put Revis on Jennings and he was pretty much handled from there. With Revis showing that he is 100%, we can expect him to be covering the top receiver from now on (with Cromartie on #2). In fact, Rex said in today's press conference that Revis will "generally" be on Calvin Johnson during this Sunday's game in Detroit. This will allow Revis to go back to being the most valuable player in NFL history, and will allow Cromartie to take lesser receivers where he will be less prone to giving up the couple of catches he gives up each game and more likely to make some interceptions. From here on out, expect the Jets defense to round into form and be the best defense in the NFL (even better than the Giants!) as we all expect them to be.
J! E! T! S! JETS! JETS! JETS!
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