FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — No Patriots player is more grateful for this Tom Brady-led Super Bowl run than cornerback Devin McCourty. If not for Tom Terrific, Dreadful Devin would arguably be the story of New England’s season.
The former Rutgers standout has experienced the mother of all sophomore slumps, plummeting so far from his Pro Bowl rookie year that coach Bill Belichick finally threw his hands in the air and moved McCourty to safety earlier this month in hopes of limiting the damage.
The NFL’s 27th overall pick a year ago, McCourty went from being the only person aside from Detroit’s Ndamukong Suh to get first-place votes for Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2010 to becoming one of just a handful of corners in league history to give up more than 1,100 receiving yards in a season.
It has been a plunge both stunning and puzzling in its depth — not to mention one that neither McCourty nor Belichick nor many of McCourty’s teammates feel like talking about as the Patriots prepare to face the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI next Sunday in Indianapolis.
Asked Thursday to compare his rookie season to this year, McCourty stammered an answer before using the topic to leave the podium and cut short his news conference with reporters.
“I don’t think that will really do anything to help myself to play this game,” McCourty said by way of explaining the incredible dropoff in his performance. “I think the focus is watching that first game we played [against the Giants in November], and watching these guys throughout the end of the season to prepare to go.”
An AFC scout told The Post this week the plunge isn’t entirely McCourty’s fault. Rather, the scout pointed the blame partly at Belichick for changing the Patriots’ defensive scheme at the start of the season.
Belichick switched to a 4-3 defensive front from his favored 3-4, asking his corners to play more “press” coverage (tight man-to-man) instead of the previous “off man” technique and zone.
“Off man” and zone played to McCourty’s strengths, allowing him to use his speed and athletic skills to prevent big plays last year while ranking second in the league with seven interceptions.
But the change to press coverage proved an immediate disaster. McCourty isn’t a physical player — a skill necessary to win battles with receivers at the line of scrimmage in press coverage — and was promptly torched in Week 1 by the Dolphins’ Brandon Marshall for seven catches for 139 yards.
Belichick stuck with press coverage as the primary scheme for just three more weeks (the Patriots allowed at least 344 passing yards in each of those games) before admitting his mistake, but the damage to McCourty’s psyche seems to have been too great.
McCourty continued to struggle the rest of the year, finishing with just two interceptions and serving as the poster child for a Patriots defense that ranked last or next-to-last in the league all season.
Belichick finally admitted his mistake in the playoffs, quietly shifting the beleaguered McCourty to safety alongside a newly healthy Patrick Chung. It was a humiliating move, made even worse by Belichick assigning converted receiver Julian Edelman to third corner, but McCourty has been spared the normal amount of embarrassment thanks to the Patriots’ Super Bowl march.
“We don’t say much to him or talk about it much,” fellow corner Kyle Arrington said this week when asked about McCourty’s descent. “We’re all professionals in here. This league is tough. Nobody in this league is going to give you any sympathy when you play [defensive back], so I don’t think he expects any.” That surely will be the case with the Giants on Super Bowl Sunday, especially with Big Blue having so many talented pass-catchers that the Patriots won’t be able to hide McCourty — even at safety. “You’ve got to dig deep within yourself,” Arrington said. “That’s the only thing [McCourty] can do
