BY NICK ST. DENIS
Under Rex Ryan, the New York Jets are 2-3 in their first meetings with the New England Patriots and 1-0 in the playoffs.
In the teams' second regular-season meetings, however, the Jets are a dismal 0-4, and in blowout fashion.
Ryan said Wednesday that being "creative" is a must against Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, particularly in rematches because of the way he's able to diagnose and dissect a defense based on what he saw earlier in the year.
"You don’t want to go in with the same plan where, 'Hey, here it is,' because you know his preparation so he may know it as well as you know it," Ryan said, via NewYorkJets.com. "You have to do different things. You have to challenge him mentally.
"And that’s why I think they’re so good historically in the second half of the season and against teams that they’ve seen more than once that they get another shot at you. They do a great job making adjustments, things like that. So you have to stay ahead of it, give them different looks."
Aside from one blown coverage on a play action, the Jets had Brady reeling when the teams met in Foxborough in Week 2. Brady completed just 19 of 39 pass attempts, and while he was barely touched, he was certainly rattled mentally.
But thanks to Jets rookie quarterback Geno Smith's three fourth-quarter interceptions, New England escaped with a win.
"You can’t really fall asleep at any point against this defense because they have a lot of negative plays in the run game and they create disruption in the pass game too," Brady said Wednesday, via Patriots.com. "We played them in Week 2, had a tough time against them. It wasn’t a good performance by our [offense].
". . . we’re going to have to go out and do a lot better this week."
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