FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – While crews were working nonstop Thursday to clear massive amounts of snow from the Gillette Stadium stands and parking lots for Sunday’s AFC divisional playoff between the New England Patriots and New York Jets, the Patriots are preparing for another force of nature: the Jets’ running game.
The work crews may have the easier chore.
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The Jets had the NFL’s fourth-best running game in the regular season (148.4 yards per game) and last week overpowered the Indianapolis Colts in the wild-card round, rushing for 169 yards in a 17-16 victory.
Under Coach Rex Ryan, the Jets run over playoff opponents, averaging 148.8 rushing yards per game. Shonn Green has been the spark, with 374 yards in those games. And he’s been joined by LaDainian Tomlinson, who scored two touchdowns and ran for 82 yards last week.
“They’re known for powering the rock,” said Vince Wilfork, the Patriots’ Pro Bowl nose tackle. “The offensive line is known for being physical. The New York Jets are known for having a great running attack. … They are built for playoff games.”
And on paper they have a big advantage over the Pats, who had the NFL’s 11th-rated rushing defense in the regular season and gave up 288 rushing yards to the Jets in two games.
But this isn’t the same run defense the Patriots played in the regular season. In fact, over the second half of the season, the run defense was one of the most improved aspects on the Patriots.
In the first eight games, opponents rushed for an average of 117.4 yards against New England. In the final eight, it dropped to 95.8, an impressive decrease of 21.6 yards per game.
Not surprisingly, the Patriots won those eight games.
Wilfork, who has emerged as a leader on this young defense, said the improvement came naturally.
“I think everybody’s just been doing their job, focusing, preparing a little bit more, watching more film,” he said. “The more you play, the better you get. The more reps you get, in practice and in the game, the better you’ll be. I think some of (the improvement) came with that.
“Early in the year the run defense was kind of crazy, just seeing guys not understand the defense the way it was meant to be played. So as time went on, we got better and better and better. And I think now we’re sitting back and saying, ‘We’ve gotten better, we’ve got to continue to get better.’ We just can’t sit back and say, ‘Oh, we’re good.’ I think it’s just everyone knowing his role, knowing exactly where he needs to be, when he needs to be there, and preparation. Everything we do revolves around preparation.”
Safety Patrick Chung, the second-leading tackler on the team behind linebacker Jerod Mayo (and just ahead of Wilfork), can attest to that.
“We work hard every day,” said Chung. “You go out to practice, work so hard until you can’t even walk. It makes the game so much easier. It makes the game a lot easier because you’ve seen it so many times at practice.”
The Patriots also have disguised their defenses better. While the Jets rushed for 152 yards the last time they played each other, many of those yards came against the Patriots’ sub packages — in other words, passing defenses — after New England built an early lead.
“Now,” said Mayo, “we show different looks and move the defensive line around a little bit and try to stop the run that way.”
Beyond that, said linebacker Rob Ninkovich, the Patriots have continued to learn.
“We’ve done a good job of improving each week, and taking each game and learning from it and improving on it,” said Ninkovich. “And I think that’s the biggest, most important part of the season, can you improve throughout the season? That’s necessary to have a good team at the end.”
Ninkovich knows the Patriots cannot let the Jets dictate the tempo like they did last week.
“With the Colts having such a great offense and Peyton Manning out there, you want to keep him off the field as much as possible,” he said. “Using the clock and keeping the ball away from their quarterback is something that worked for them (in the wild-card game). Obviously with us having Tom (Brady), he’s a great quarterback, they will want to do the same thing and not let him on the field.
“So as a defense, we need to do our job and keep him on the field.”
The Patriots couldn’t do that in the first meeting of the year between the teams, won by the Jets, 28-14. They did that in the second game, won by New England, 45-3.
The Patriots intercepted Mark Sanchez three times, allowing Brady to build a big lead and negating the Jets’ running game.
“First down is a big down,” said Ninkovich. “You have to stop the run and that’s the biggest thing about this week, having a tough attitude towards the run.”
Staff Writer Mike Lowe can be contacted at 791-6422 or at:
mlowe@pressherald.com
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