FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Strictly speaking, the New England Patriots prefer bland to bold.

Let Rex Ryan and his loose-lipped New York Jets do the talking. Bill Belichick and his players prepare for a game, not a debate.

“Everybody’s got their own style,” the Patriots coach said Monday.

Belichick’s style is a strict one: advising players on how to handle questions, monitoring their comments and imposing gag orders on those who stray far from the party line.

“Rex does a great job with his team. I’m just trying to coach mine,” Belichick said when asked about Ryan’s approach. “I’m not really worried about what anybody else is doing. Is that the answer you’re looking for?”

No, the reporter on the conference call answered.

Belichick just laughed.

“When he speaks to us, he just speaks the truth,” Patriots quarterback Tom Brady said Monday during his weekly appearance on WEEI radio. “The only people that can really change the fate of what we are able to do each week are the guys sitting in the room.

“He doesn’t buy into all the other stuff, the buildup, the reporters, to make their jobs easy by giving them a bunch of stories. He’s committed to doing what’s best for our football team. And the players respect that.”

Ryan makes no apologies for his brash talk. Monday, he said Sunday’s divisional playoff game between the Jets and the Patriots “is about Bill Belichick vs. Rex Ryan.”

“There’s no question. It’s personal. It’s about him against myself, and that’s what it’s going to come down to.”

He described last Saturday’s game against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts as “personal,” too. After a 17-16 win set up this playoff matchup between the Jets (12-5) and Patriots (14-2), Ryan is letting everyone know that this time, it’s really, really personal.

“I recognize that he’s the best and all that,” Ryan said of Belichick. “But, I’m just trying to be the best on Sunday, and I plan on being the best coach on Sunday. That’s what it is. I recognize that my level has to come up, and he’s going to get my best shot. He’s going to get everything I have on Sunday, and if he slips at all, we’re going to beat him.”

The Patriots lost to the Jets 28-14 on Sept. 19, then beat them 45-3 on Dec. 6.

After the Jets advanced to Sunday’s game in Foxborough with a 17-16 win over the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday night, tight end Dustin Keller said, “We’ve been wanting the Patriots for a while now.”

Belichick wants any pregame comments that might motivate an opponent kept in-house, not posted on the other team’s bulletin board.

Why risk providing extra incentive or giving tips about the Patriots’ strategy or injuries?

“It’s a control of, ‘Hey, here is the message of the team. Here is what we want to get out, here is our belief system, let’s communicate this,’ ” said former Patriots fullback Heath Evans, now with the New Orleans Saints. “I communicated it completely, totally different than Tedy (Bruschi) and Tedy communicated it totally different than (Mike) Vrabel.

“The main thing there was injuries. We were not going to talk about what can hurt this team. We’re not giving anyone a leg up on anything about what we’re doing. (The Patriots) take it very, very seriously.”

So don’t expect much talk from the Patriots before Sunday’s game.

“We’re going to let our play do the talking as we always do, said Brady.”

On Sunday, they need to control the Jets’ running game that gained 169 yards last Sunday against the Colts.

Receivers need to get open against cornerback Darrelle Revis, who held Reggie Wayne to one catch for 1 yard after he led the AFC with 111 receptions.

“They’ll be coming in with a lot of confidence on Sunday, which they should,” Belichick said in his usual monotone.

Nice and bland. Just the way he likes it.

 

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