Rex Ryan, second-guessing himself today, took the blame for playing CB Darrelle Revis on the left side the entire game against the Ravens Monday night, which meant exposing Cromartie and rookie Kyle Wilson to Anquan Boldin, Baltimore’s best receiver.
Boldin, of course, killed the Jets with seven catches for 110 yards.
“Obviously, with the kind of day Boldin had, it’s probably easy to go back and question that,’’ Ryan conceded. “It was my decision to keep him on the left side, because I thought we could save some running for him going back and forth. I wanted to take that away from him because he only had the one week of practice.
“Hindsight being what it is, I probably should have matched him on Boldin, but at the time I felt it would be better for Darrelle that we just keep him in one spot so he wouldn’t have to travel all the time.
“He’s in shape, but the football shape part of it I worried about. But I think we’ve got to (let Revis) travel.’’
That begins Sunday against the Patriots and WR Randy Moss, who Revis shut down twice last year.
Asked if Revis will be trailing Moss’ every move Sunday, Ryan said, “Yeah, you can go ahead and put that in there.’’
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Ryan said he planned to work specifically with CB Antonio Cromartie, who was flagged for three killer defensive penalties Monday night.
The problem, Ryan said, is that Cromartie was not physical enough off the line of scrimmage and when his man was beating him he would desperately reach out to try to slow him down.
“With the style of play we play I’ve got to get across to Cromartie that we’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to play a lot of man coverage,’’ Ryan said. “And with his athleticism, if he gets his hands on his guy he can be a shut-down corner as well as anyone in this league.
“But we’ve got to get him to play a little more physical at the line of scrimmage and trust his athleticism. Some of the things he got involved in (Monday) was he tried to grab guys because they separated from him. With his athleticism he’s going to catch up to people.
“That’s a thing I’m going to talk to ‘Cro’ about. He’s got phenomenal ability and I think he’s going to be an outstanding player for us, but you’ve got to understand that in this style of defense you’ve got to be aggressive at the line of scrimmage _ get your hands on receivers, reroute them and let your athleticism take over.’’
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Ryan said he felt, other than the late sack by Raven’s DT Haloti Ngata Jets LG Matt Slauson, making his first NFL start, “played well.’’
Ryan, too, praised RB LaDainian Tomlinson, who was the best offensive player on the field for for the Jets Monday night, gaining 62 yards on 11 carries.
“If we all played to his level and coached to his level,’’ Ryan said, “we’d have won the game.’’
