New England Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount (29) celebrates a touchdown with quarterback Tom Brady (12) in the second half of an NFL football game against the Indianapolis Colts in Indianapolis, Sunday, Oct. 18, 2015. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Darrelle Revis switched sides in the rivalry between the Patriots and Jets and helped New England win a Super Bowl in his only season there.
Then he switched back.
Again manning the defensive backfield for New York, where he played the first six years of his career, Revis has helped bolster a defense that is No. 1 in the league. And for Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who has faced Revis in both practice and games, there’s no question which he preferred.
“He’s been an incredible playmaker since he’s been in the league,” Brady said this week as the Patriots (5-0) prepared for the Jets (4-1). “I got a firsthand look at that last year every day in practice, and it was great to have him play a part here. But he moved on, so now he’s our competition again.”
Revis made the Pro Bowl four straight years before missing most of the 2012 season with a torn ACL. The Jets traded the cornerback to Tampa Bay that offseason, and after one season with the Buccaneers in which he returned to Pro Bowl form — but won only four games — he signed with the Patriots.
For a team that resists big-name and big-money free agents, the signing was a departure — one that paid off. Revis solidified the secondary and helped New England win its fourth championship, intercepting Andrew Luck in the AFC title game and then adding a sack of Russell Wilson in the Super Bowl.
“When you don’t coach a guy, you don’t just have that day-to-day relationship with him. You just see him the times you compete against him,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He was a pleasure to coach and really has a great understanding, instinctiveness to the game, studies his opponents well, always well prepared, very professional. Obviously, he’s a great player.”
New York and Boston have been rivals for more than a century — not just in football, and not just in sports. But the NFL “border wars” that flared up between Belichick and mentor Bill Parcells had cooled before Rex Ryan took over the Jets.
Still, he couldn’t make much of a dent in a Patriots reign that has earned them 11 AFC East titles in 12 years. Revis switching sides might not be enough to change that, but with a victory the Jets would tie New England atop the division.
Here are some more things to look for in Sunday’s game:
SMALL TALK: Ryan arrived in New York vowing to challenge the Patriots’ supremacy. Though the Jets did reach the conference championship game in back-to-back seasons (2009-10), they only went through the Patriots once and never won a division title.
Under new coach Todd Bowles, the Jets have taken a quieter approach.
“It’s as big as you want it to be,” Revis said. “For us, it’s still early in the season. We’re still trying to get better and better each week. It is a big game because it is a conference game, but at the same time, it’s still early in the season. … Whoever’s on the schedule that week, that’s who we’ve got to play.”
IVORY SHINES: Jets running back Chris Ivory is off to the best start of his NFL career.
He’s coming off his first back-to-back 100 yards rushing performances, and his 312 yards rushing combined over the last two games are the most by a Jets player since Thomas Jones had 331 in 2009.
Ivory leads the NFL with 115 yards per game, ranks second with 5.54 yards per carry, and is third in overall rushing with 460 yards — despite missing one game with a quadriceps injury and having a bye-week break.
“It’s a great scheme and they’re doing a hell of a job up front,” Ivory said. “I’m being very patient, probably the most patient I’ve been throughout my career.”
MARSHALL LAW: Brandon Marshall has 100 or more yards receiving in four straight games, becoming the Jets’ first player to accomplish the feat since Hall of Famer Don Maynard in 1968 and the third overall.
He has 37 catches for 511 yards and four touchdowns, the last score stunning quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick when Marshall made a terrific fingertips catch just off his shoe tops on a poor throw and then scooted down the sideline for a 35-yard TD.
“How he caught it, I don’t know,” Fitzpatrick said. “How he turned it in to a touchdown, I really don’t know. That’s one of those where you’re very thankful that Brandon is my teammate and very thankful for the opportunity to get to throw to him.”
EX-PATS: In addition to Revis, wide receiver Kenbrell Thompkins and running back Stevan Ridley could play against their former teammates in New England.
Thompkins was promoted this week from the Jets’ practice squad. He was signed by the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in 2013 and also spent time with the Raiders last year before spending this summer with New England again.
Ridley, who practiced for the first time this season on Wednesday, is making a return from torn knee ligaments suffered last year with the Patriots. He’s on the physically unable to perform list, and the Jets wanted to see how he got through the week before deciding whether to activate him.
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