Parkbandit
01-09-2010, 11:09 PM
Revis is game-changer, name-changer -- and the reason Jets succeed
CINCINNATI -- Football is too large, too complex to be a one-man game. There are 53 players on an NFL team, and there are 22 players on the field for every play. Those are easy, concrete numbers that have always made sense to me -- until today. Because today I saw for myself how one player can be the reason why the New York Jets are in the playoffs. And I saw for myself how one player can be the reason why they're still in the playoffs after Saturday, when they beat Cincinnati 24-14.
That one player out of 53 on his team, that one player out of 22 on the field, is Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis. And while I can't make sense of the mathematics, I can make sense of this: Darrelle Revis is really, really freaking good. And his brilliance has a trickle-down effect that covers the entire field as thoroughly as Revis himself covers whichever poor SOB is the other team's No. 1 receiver that day.
Saturday, the poor SOB was the Bengals' Chad Ochocinco. Or Chad Johnson. No one's sure what his name will be next, because he went on the record last week as saying that Revis couldn't shut him down. Ochocinco was so sure of that, he vowed to change his name back to Johnson if he was wrong. And he was wrong -- twice. Last week, in the regular-season finale for both teams, Revis snapped Ochocinco's 120-game streak with at least one catch. And then on Saturday, in the playoffs, Revis held Ochocinco to two measly catches for 28 measly yards. Those are, statistically, Ochocinco's two worst games of the season. And the Jets won them both -- first to get into the playoffs, and then to advance.
And so after the game Saturday, nobody was sure what to call Ochocinco. It was a laughing topic of conversation in the Jets' locker room, too, believe me. Former NFL defensive back Artrell Hawkins, who played with Johnson in Cincinnati from 2001-03 and with Revis at New York in 2008, came over to Revis' locker and mumbled, "His last name should be Revis, man -- Chad Revis."
Not a bad idea. But then, we'd have to start changing names all over the NFL after each receiver made his visit to an area of land called Revis Island: Randy Moss of the Patriots, who managed just three catches for 21 yards earlier this season against Revis, would be Randy Revis. Andre Johnson (two catches, 24 yards) of the Texans? Andre Revis. And don't forget feisty little Steve Smith Revis of the Carolina Panthers, who had just one catch for 5 yards against the Jets. We could let Buffalo's Terrell Owens keep his name, considering he had four catches for 42 yards this season against Revis. Then again, those were his numbers for two games.
After watching this one-man demolition crew for myself, I'm starting to think Revis deserved some MVP consideration this season for leading the Jets and their rookie coach and rookie quarterback into the playoffs. Only four players received votes for the 2009 MVP trophy, with Peyton Manning winning by a large margin over three other quarterbacks, but nobody could be more valuable to his team than Revis was to the Jets on Saturday. And considering Saturday was a microcosm of the Jets' season ... nobody could have been more valuable to his team in 2009 than Revis was to the Jets.
Facts are facts, and these facts are absurd: In 16 regular-season games this season, when he was matched against the best receiver the other team has to offer -- a Who's Who of future Hall of Famers like Owens, Moss and Andre Johnson -- Revis has allowed those players to make a total of 27 catches for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
All season.
If I didn't look up those numbers myself, I'd tell you that's impossible. But that's what Revis does. And the way he does it frees up the rest of the New York defense. With Revis shutting down the other team's star receiver, the Jets are fighting a rattlesnake without fangs -- poor thing still looks scary, but it can't do any damage.
That was the Bengals, minus Ochocinco (again), on Saturday: defanged. Nobody else could get open, because nobody else in the Bengals' receiving corps is any good. Laveranues Coles runs like he's 56 years old. Andre Caldwell plays like he's still in college. The Bengals' tight end? I don't know who he is. All Cincinnati could do on Saturday was run, and Cedric Benson ran for 169 yards and the 47-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter that might have made a game of it if he'd had any help. But he didn't, because Revis had already yanked out Cincinnati's incisors.
Ochocinco didn't quite see it that way, but then, Ochocinco has always had a massive disconnect from reality. Here's what he said about Revis: "He did a good job. The entire defense did a good job. Nothing special. They didn't do anything amazing."
On the Bengals' final meaningful drive, which ended in Shayne Graham's second shocking miss of a short field goal with 3:49 to play, Carson Palmer tried throwing passes to four different players -- Coles, Caldwell, someone named Daniel Coats (maybe he's the tight end) and Quan Cosby -- before finally deciding to throw it in Ochocinco's direction. Good thinking by Palmer. More than 55 minutes into the game, Revis had caught as many of his passes (one, an interception) as Ochocinco.
All of this Revis stuff is good for the Jets offense, too. Anchored by Revis, the Jets defense led the lead in points allowed this season at 14.8 per game -- which means two touchdowns and a field goal would win most games for the Jets. That takes the pressure off rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, who can hand the ball to one of the best 1-2 punches in the NFL, Shonn Greene (just 540 yards this season, but 21 carries for 135 yards Saturday) and Thomas Jones (just 34 yards Saturday, but 1,402 this season), and then use the defense's anticipation against it. Sanchez's most reliable pass play Saturday was a rollout one way, after faking a pitch the other way, and then a short pass to wide open tight end Dustin Keller (three catches for 91 yards and a touchdown).
And all of that combined Saturday to take the pressure off a punting game missing its punter. With Steve Weatherford diagnosed minutes before kickoff with an irregular heartbeat, kicker Jay Feely did double duty. He didn't have much leg strength, but he downed short punts at the Bengals' 11, 6 and 12. And with Revis shutting down the Bengals' only downfield passing threat, that field position was a death sentence to the Cincinnati offense. And season.
"Just doing my job," Revis said. "I take it very seriously -- studying film, getting into the other team's tendencies. I take it real serious. If that guy gets me for 160 yards and two scores and we win, it doesn't matter -- we won. But if he does that and we lose, it's on me. I want that heat."
Heat? I don't see heat. All I see is a steady forecast of cold, empty days on Revis Island.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/12763453/revis-is-gamechanger-namechanger
I hope Chad has something to say about this.. because it's hilarious to see someone like him being force fed crow.
CINCINNATI -- Football is too large, too complex to be a one-man game. There are 53 players on an NFL team, and there are 22 players on the field for every play. Those are easy, concrete numbers that have always made sense to me -- until today. Because today I saw for myself how one player can be the reason why the New York Jets are in the playoffs. And I saw for myself how one player can be the reason why they're still in the playoffs after Saturday, when they beat Cincinnati 24-14.
That one player out of 53 on his team, that one player out of 22 on the field, is Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis. And while I can't make sense of the mathematics, I can make sense of this: Darrelle Revis is really, really freaking good. And his brilliance has a trickle-down effect that covers the entire field as thoroughly as Revis himself covers whichever poor SOB is the other team's No. 1 receiver that day.
Saturday, the poor SOB was the Bengals' Chad Ochocinco. Or Chad Johnson. No one's sure what his name will be next, because he went on the record last week as saying that Revis couldn't shut him down. Ochocinco was so sure of that, he vowed to change his name back to Johnson if he was wrong. And he was wrong -- twice. Last week, in the regular-season finale for both teams, Revis snapped Ochocinco's 120-game streak with at least one catch. And then on Saturday, in the playoffs, Revis held Ochocinco to two measly catches for 28 measly yards. Those are, statistically, Ochocinco's two worst games of the season. And the Jets won them both -- first to get into the playoffs, and then to advance.
And so after the game Saturday, nobody was sure what to call Ochocinco. It was a laughing topic of conversation in the Jets' locker room, too, believe me. Former NFL defensive back Artrell Hawkins, who played with Johnson in Cincinnati from 2001-03 and with Revis at New York in 2008, came over to Revis' locker and mumbled, "His last name should be Revis, man -- Chad Revis."
Not a bad idea. But then, we'd have to start changing names all over the NFL after each receiver made his visit to an area of land called Revis Island: Randy Moss of the Patriots, who managed just three catches for 21 yards earlier this season against Revis, would be Randy Revis. Andre Johnson (two catches, 24 yards) of the Texans? Andre Revis. And don't forget feisty little Steve Smith Revis of the Carolina Panthers, who had just one catch for 5 yards against the Jets. We could let Buffalo's Terrell Owens keep his name, considering he had four catches for 42 yards this season against Revis. Then again, those were his numbers for two games.
After watching this one-man demolition crew for myself, I'm starting to think Revis deserved some MVP consideration this season for leading the Jets and their rookie coach and rookie quarterback into the playoffs. Only four players received votes for the 2009 MVP trophy, with Peyton Manning winning by a large margin over three other quarterbacks, but nobody could be more valuable to his team than Revis was to the Jets on Saturday. And considering Saturday was a microcosm of the Jets' season ... nobody could have been more valuable to his team in 2009 than Revis was to the Jets.
Facts are facts, and these facts are absurd: In 16 regular-season games this season, when he was matched against the best receiver the other team has to offer -- a Who's Who of future Hall of Famers like Owens, Moss and Andre Johnson -- Revis has allowed those players to make a total of 27 catches for 288 yards and two touchdowns.
All season.
If I didn't look up those numbers myself, I'd tell you that's impossible. But that's what Revis does. And the way he does it frees up the rest of the New York defense. With Revis shutting down the other team's star receiver, the Jets are fighting a rattlesnake without fangs -- poor thing still looks scary, but it can't do any damage.
That was the Bengals, minus Ochocinco (again), on Saturday: defanged. Nobody else could get open, because nobody else in the Bengals' receiving corps is any good. Laveranues Coles runs like he's 56 years old. Andre Caldwell plays like he's still in college. The Bengals' tight end? I don't know who he is. All Cincinnati could do on Saturday was run, and Cedric Benson ran for 169 yards and the 47-yard touchdown early in the fourth quarter that might have made a game of it if he'd had any help. But he didn't, because Revis had already yanked out Cincinnati's incisors.
Ochocinco didn't quite see it that way, but then, Ochocinco has always had a massive disconnect from reality. Here's what he said about Revis: "He did a good job. The entire defense did a good job. Nothing special. They didn't do anything amazing."
On the Bengals' final meaningful drive, which ended in Shayne Graham's second shocking miss of a short field goal with 3:49 to play, Carson Palmer tried throwing passes to four different players -- Coles, Caldwell, someone named Daniel Coats (maybe he's the tight end) and Quan Cosby -- before finally deciding to throw it in Ochocinco's direction. Good thinking by Palmer. More than 55 minutes into the game, Revis had caught as many of his passes (one, an interception) as Ochocinco.
All of this Revis stuff is good for the Jets offense, too. Anchored by Revis, the Jets defense led the lead in points allowed this season at 14.8 per game -- which means two touchdowns and a field goal would win most games for the Jets. That takes the pressure off rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez, who can hand the ball to one of the best 1-2 punches in the NFL, Shonn Greene (just 540 yards this season, but 21 carries for 135 yards Saturday) and Thomas Jones (just 34 yards Saturday, but 1,402 this season), and then use the defense's anticipation against it. Sanchez's most reliable pass play Saturday was a rollout one way, after faking a pitch the other way, and then a short pass to wide open tight end Dustin Keller (three catches for 91 yards and a touchdown).
And all of that combined Saturday to take the pressure off a punting game missing its punter. With Steve Weatherford diagnosed minutes before kickoff with an irregular heartbeat, kicker Jay Feely did double duty. He didn't have much leg strength, but he downed short punts at the Bengals' 11, 6 and 12. And with Revis shutting down the Bengals' only downfield passing threat, that field position was a death sentence to the Cincinnati offense. And season.
"Just doing my job," Revis said. "I take it very seriously -- studying film, getting into the other team's tendencies. I take it real serious. If that guy gets me for 160 yards and two scores and we win, it doesn't matter -- we won. But if he does that and we lose, it's on me. I want that heat."
Heat? I don't see heat. All I see is a steady forecast of cold, empty days on Revis Island.
http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/story/12763453/revis-is-gamechanger-namechanger
I hope Chad has something to say about this.. because it's hilarious to see someone like him being force fed crow.