Cromartie, not Revis, is matched up with Moss

It seemed to take all night, but Randy Moss finally made his presence felt.

Deep in the right corner of the end zone, the future Hall of Fame receiver brought down a 37-yard touchdown pass from Brett Favre, signaling the beginning of the Favre-Moss era in Minnesota.

But that third-quarter strike - which pulled the Vikings to within 12-7 with 2:10 to go in the quarter and marked Favre's 500th career touchdown pass - was all Moss could muster against the Jets' defense.

Moss was targeted 10 times, but led by cornerback Antonio Cromartie, the Jets' defensive backs held Moss to four receptions for 81 yards. It was the most receiving yards Moss has had in a game this season, but it took nearly two quarters for him and Favre to connect.

"I'm not saying we ad-libbed, but it was a tough week for me," said Moss, who was traded to the Vikings by the Patriots on Wednesday.

The much-talked about matchup between Moss and shutdown corner Darrelle Revis never materialized Monday night. As expected, Revis - who returned from a hamstring injury - instead lined up opposite Percy Harvin (97 yards on five receptions, including two touchdowns) for much of the game while Cromartie blanketed Moss.

Favre tried to go deep to his newest receiver twice in the first quarter, but both passes were incomplete, thanks to suffocating Jets coverage. Moss didn't get his first catch until about 41/2 minutes remained in the second quarter, when he and Favre connected on a 7-yard pass. But the first-down conversion was wasted, as Favre fumbled a potential handoff and Jets linebacker Bart Scott recovered at Minnesota's 47.

"I don't think it's a lot of pressure," Cromartie said of facing Moss. "It's just more so getting your hands on him and try to do what you need to do. Just try to go out there and compete."

Given Revis' nagging hamstring injury, the Jets had planned all week to put Cromartie on Moss and rotate Revis. Cromartie said he loved every minute of it.

"I wanted that the whole time," he said of his matchup with Moss. "I looked forward to it when we were coming into the week, once he got traded over. I'm just happy that everything worked out and we came out with a win."

Moss had hoped to prove his critics wrong in the wake of his departure from New England and Revis' latest jabs at his work ethic.

"He came out full force early in the game," Revis said last week, referring to what he said was a lack of effort by Moss in the tail end of the Jets' 28-14 Week 2 win over the Patriots. "In the second half, you could tell he was kind of like putting his foot on the brake. But everybody knows that's Randy: sometimes he plays 100 percent, sometimes he doesn't."

Moss fired back, saying: "I think he gets caught up a little bit with how he talks. I've never said anything about him, good or bad. I still give him his respect, but he hasn't given me mine yet. Sooner or later, I'll get it."

In his first game at New Meadowlands Stadium with the Patriots, Moss burned Revis on a one-handed, 34-yard touchdown catch. Revis came out of the game immediately after that because of hamstring tightness and didn't return. He missed two games because of the injury.

Moss never got close enough to outrun Revis Monday night - but Harvin did. He beat Revis on a 34-yard touchdown pass to cut the Jets' lead to 15-13 with 12:47 left in the game.