Deep impact

Pats anticipate different look to Jets’ offense under Favre

Love him or hate him, you have to admit Brett Favre has radically transformed the look of the Jets’ offense.

When meeting New York, the Patriots had become accustomed to the noodle-armed Chad Pennington, who had faced New England pretty much twice a season since he became the New York starter in 2002. Under Pennington, the Jets’ offense had virtually no horizontal passing game to speak of, allowing opposing safeties to cheat forward and not worry about much getting over their heads. (In a December matchup against the Patriots at Gillette Stadium, New York’s longest pass play went for just 16 yards.) Overall, a combination of Pennington, Kellen Clemens and Brad Smith averaged 6.5 yards gained per pass for the Jets last season, one of the worst numbers in the league.

Now Favre is at the controls, and even after one game, the difference is palpable. Sunday against the Dolphins, the Jets stretched the field more than they had even the last few seasons. In Week 1, New York had had eight pass plays of 10 yards or more, including touchdown passes of 56 yards and 22 yards.

Those changes in the New York offense didn’t escape the watchful eye of the Patriots, who are anticipating a different sort of matchup this week in the first New England-New York meeting of the 2008 season Sunday at 4:15 p.m. at The Meadowlands. The Jets will be looking downfield, which means a busy day for the Patriots’ pass defense.

“They have the ability to go downfield,” said cornerback Ellis Hobbs III when asked about the difference between this Jets’ offense and the ones of the past. “His arm is that strong. He can throw it into tight situations, tight coverage, and just make plays happen.”

“I can tell you that the deep ball is probably more of a threat now, because Favre has a stronger arm,” said linebacker Adalius Thomas.

Another thing that makes it harder to defend Favre than Pennington is his ability to improvise when a play starts to break down. While it can be a positive and a negative — no quarterback has thrown more bad interceptions over the last five years than Favre — his ability to freelance on the run can make it difficult on a secondary.

“Brett is the type of player that can take the ball from one side of the field and in a split second, turn around, whip it somewhere else and put it right on the money — just like he did against the Giants when he hit [Jerricho] Cotchery down the sideline for a 50-yard touchdown,” said Patriots coach Bill Belichick.

“You don’t really want to guess with Brett,” he added. “He’s made a lot of plays through the course of his career. He’s athletic. He can stay on his feet and buy extra time in the passing game and that puts most stress on your coverage at all levels — both at the intermediate level and the deeper level.”

“He strings the plays out,” said Thomas, who called admiringly called Favre a “slinger.”

“That’s part of being an improvising, scrambling quarterback. He can make a guy miss. You think it’s a sack, and the next thing you know, he’s out and throwing the ball deep to Cotchery or [Laveranues] Coles.”