When speaking with USA TODAY Sports on Thursday New York Jets safety Marcus Gilchrist talked about how a team should prepare to face New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and offered the following:
“You prepare the same way you prepare for Kirk Cousins.”
Yeah, Gilchrist just compared Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins (six touchdowns and eight interceptions this season), who the Jets held to only 196 passing yards and picked off twice (one by Gilchrist), in New York’s 34-20 victory last Sunday to one of the greatest to ever play the game. But, here’s the thing, Marcus Gilchrist’s preparation mentality for Brady and Cousins is correct.
“You don’t change,” the former Clemson Tiger added. “It’s like turning the light switch on and off because it’s a different person. Kirk Cousins could have easily come out there (last week) and we could’ve not played sound football and not been where we were supposed to be and he could’ve looked the same way (like Brady).
“We can’t allow one game to be bigger than the other. Do we realize the type of player we’re playing against? Yes, we do. But you don’t change. We’ve got to be 1-0 this week, regardless of who it is – Brady – regardless of who we’re playing.”
Every team should have the same approach and mentality as Gilchrist. Every week each NFL team should have one goal: to be better than the team they are facing and be 1-0 that week. Having that thought process will allow players to just go out and play football and not get caught up in all of the superfluous nonsense.
Gilchrist’s teammate, defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson, should listen to this safety because Richardson, who was suspended for the first four games of the season, opened up his pie hole yet again.
“This is going to be another win for us. We’ll let you all write the columns about validating wins and stuff like that. This is going to be another win in the win column if we got out there and execute and do what we’re supposed to do,” Richardson said, via Kristian Dyer of Metro.com.
Hasn’t Richardson learned to keep this mouth shut? Apparently not. Having confidence is great, but guaranteeing wins and putting undue pressure on your team is not.
Sunday’s matchup should be a really good one and each team should focus on preparing to go out and get a win. It will be strength (Patriots offense) on strength (Jets defense). New England has scored the most points in the third quarter this season (51) and are averaging 36.6 points per game (first). The Jets have allowed opponents to score exactly zero points in the third quarter this season and rank first in scoring defense (15 points per game) and total defense (269.2 total yards per game). Brady has thrown one interception this season, but the Jets have forced 15 turnovers (third).
Regardless of the fact that this game is between two division rivals who flat out do not like each other, and that the winner of Sunday’s game will be atop the AFC East. And with or without all of the above stats, Gilchrist is smart to have the mentality that Sunday’s game is no bigger than any other game, even if the respective fan bases of these two teams may feel differently.
I think, and as a Patriots fan hope, that New England will win this game, even if it won’t be easy. But if the Jets worry about how great the Patriots and their quarterback is, they will have no shot at stopping, or at least slowing down, Brady. Gilchrist and the Jets should continue to have the approach that they need to prepare equally as hard for every opponent and treat each week and game the same as the last. That includes Sunday’s game at Gillette Stadium.
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