Pats' offense much more complex than Colts'

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. - The temptation, Jets defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said, is to tear the cover off the game plan the Jets used to contain Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning last week and replace it with a cover targeting New England quarterback Tom Brady with the same strategy. If only it were that easy.

The confidence the Jets exuded going into their 17-16 wild-card win over the Colts has given way to a sense of high anxiety for their divisional playoff matchup with the Patriots on Sunday in Foxborough, Mass. Part of it stems from the 45-3 loss the Jets suffered Dec. 6 at Gillette Stadium, and part of it is understanding the offense that Brady runs is more complex than the Colts' attack.

"New England is just a very intelligent offense,'' Pettine said. "They're constantly evolving and changing, and they're always looking to take what the defense is giving to them. It's not like Indy, where it's the same offense year in and year out with some minor tweaks. This is a flavor-of-the-week-type thing. They're going to come out with something you haven't prepared for and run their basic stuff out of it. You need to have the ability to adapt in-game.''

Just as they did last week in Indianapolis, Jets safeties Eric Smith and Brodney Pool figure to play a major role containing slot receivers and tight ends and stopping the run when the Jets replace linebackers with extra defensive backs and dare the Patriots to run. But the matchups are much tougher because of the Patriots' array of three tight ends.

At 275 pounds, Alge Crumpler primarily is a blocker; 265-pound rookie Rob Gronkowski combines size with receiving ability (42 catches, 526 yards, 10 touchdowns), and athletic 245-pound rookie Aaron Hernandez (45 catches, 563 yards, six TDs) is like an oversized wide receiver.

"You almost want to treat Hernandez as a wide receiver, but they use him enough in the run game where you can't quite do that,'' Pettine said. "So it's a problem. He's too athletic to be covered by a linebacker, yet maybe too physical to be covered by a defensive back.''

Comparing the diversity of the Pats' passing game to the Colts, Smith said, "It's a little more complex, more formations, more schemes. They have a different set of skills, a lot of underneath guys, where Indianapolis had the tight end, basically, and the slot going underneath. We'll have different guys covering the tight ends.''

While the Jets took Indianapolis wide receiver Reggie Wayne out of the game by playing cornerback Darrelle Revis against him most of the time, they can't do that to wide receiver Wes Welker because he lines up everywhere from the backfield to the slot and wideout. No team has receivers who are better at finding the open space in a defense than the Patriots.

"That's the toughest thing against a team like this,'' Pool said. "They're always breaking off your leverage. That's the thing they do the best. Like if you're inside, they break outside . They do so many different things that it's hard to get a key on what exactly they're doing.''

Against the Colts, the Jets often used only one linebacker, inviting Manning to call a running play and expecting their safeties and corners to react in time for the tackle. But the Patriots have a more effective running game with 1,000-yard running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis and former Jet Danny Woodhead as a third-down type.

"They're running out of different groupings with the tight ends out there, so it's hard to put all DBs out there,'' Pettine said. "All of a sudden, they're in almost a goal-line look or a two-back set running [behind] a tight end. You don't want to be stuck out there in nickel and dime packages. They make it a little bit harder to do that than against Indy.''

The way the Jets' defense played against the Colts built confidence, but the memory of their 45-3 loss to the Pats is a sobering dose of reality about the difficulty of containing Brady, who has thrown four interceptions all season.

"They kind of use passes as runs,'' Smith said. "You try to play 'small' against them, but they actually run pretty well. If we try to 'heavy up' the box, that's when they start throwing outside. They've got a lot of things to counter what we try to do.''

It's a quandary, and the Jets can't be sure

they have the answers.