Another week, another target for the Quarterback Killers. If this were the Old West, photos of Tom Brady, Brett Favre, Peyton Manning and Rich Gannon would have hung outside the neighborhood saloons engraved with the words “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”
If Sunday’s Raiders-Jets game in Oakland turns into a Gunfight at the OK Corral type of shootout, defensive end Shaun Ellis offers this solution for stopping Gannon: “Getting sacks will help. Then it’s like he’s dead.”
The Jets were able to silence the dangerous right arms of Brady, Favre and Manning without relying on the sack. They nailed Brady twice, Favre once and Manning once. But their front seven applied plenty of pressure on all three quarterbacks to force hurried, inaccurate passes. The defense effectively stopped the running game and the secondary threw a blanket over the receivers.
“That, and playing good offense,” is how Jets coach Herman Edwards summed up the blueprint for his defensive unit. “When you play good offense, that helps you play good defense. Teddy [Cottrell, the defensive coordinator] and those guys have done a great job of really playing well against good quarterbacks.”
Brady was held to 133 yards passing in the Jets’ 30-17 victory over New England, more than 100 below his per-game average. Favre could not complete even half of his attempts in the Jets’ 42-17 destruction of the Packers. The usually accurate Manning hit just 45.2 percent of his passes for a mere 137 yards in the Colts’ 41-0 wild-card loss to the Jets, nearly 130 yards below his average.
“Different styles, different situations,” safety Damien Robinson said. “[Gannon] is dangerous because he keeps the chains moving with those dinks and dunks. But when you play against so many great quarterbacks, it does give you confidence. We’re getting a lot of support from our front seven. We’re doing a great job of covering [in the secondary]. We feed off each other.”
For this quarterback feast to continue Sunday, however, the Jets will need a gargantuan effort.
“It won’t be easy stopping this guy, but it wasn’t easy stopping the other guys, either. He’s the best of the best,” nickelback Ray Mickens said. “We’ve done it, though. We’ve proved that we can stop the best. We know we’re capable of doing it.”
Gannon won’t be easy to contain. He was voted MVP after leading the NFL in yards passing with 4,689. He threw 26 touchdown passes with but 10 interceptions. Only Chad Pennington had a higher quarterback rating. Gannon may be 37 and not as prone to running downfield as he once was, but he remains nimble and elusive. If the Jets have their way, Gannon will be running for his life.
“Sometimes you can get pressure and he’ll still throw a good pass,” Ellis said, remembering how Gannon bedeviled the Jets in a 26-20 victory Dec. 2, completing 31-of-42 passes for 342 yards.
“But we’ll try to get him moving around in the pocket, not standing in there being comfortable. Make him jittery.”
Ellis’ partner in crime at defensive end, John Abraham, added, “If you don’t pressure quarterbacks like that, they’ll pick you apart.”
Gannon is one of the best at dissecting defenses. Asked where he would rank Gannon, after what he’s seen the last three weeks, Edwards said without hesitation, “No. 1. He’s the MVP of the league. They have the best [No. 1-rated] offense in the league. That’s a fact. He’s the No. 1 guy.”
Which makes him the No. 1 target for the Jets’ bounty hunters on defense. “It’s up to how we do. We can’t worry about who we’re playing,” safety Sam Garnes said. “We’re very confident, but it’s a quiet confidence. We’re not showboating.”
Nor are they gun-shy.
Jets (10-7) at Raiders (11-5)
How they match up
CATEGORY NYJ OAK
Total offense 314.7 (22) 389.8 (1)
Scoring offense 22.4 (14) 28.1 (2)
Rushing offense 101.1 (21) 110.1 (17)
Passing offense 213.6 (17) 279.7 (1)
1st downs/game 18.8 (21) 22.9 (1)
3rd down pct. 40.4 (15) 45.3 (2)
4th down pct. 33.3 (30) 70.0 (3)
Time of poss. 28.52 (28) 31.22 (5)
Total defense 341.4 (24) 311.2 (11)
Scoring defense 21.0 (14) 19.0 (6)
Rushing defense 123.3 (18) 90.8 (3)
Passing defense 218.1 (21) 220.4 (23)
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Note: Regular-season statistics
NFL rank in parentheses
JETS INJURIES: none.
RAIDERS INJURIES
Doubtful: TE Roland Williams (knee/toe).
Questionable: DE Trace Armstrong (groin); T Lincoln Kennedy (groin); RB Tyrone Wheatley (ankle); CB Charles Woodson (leg).
Probable: DE Regan Upshaw (back).
