Wilfork an anchor man

FOXBOROUGH - Vince Wilfork will never have three interceptions in a game, the way Leigh Bodden did yesterday.

The big nose tackle has yet to register a multiple-sack performance - the way Tully Banta-Cain did against the Jets - in his 87-game career. He certainly won’t ever achieve the kind of statistical prowess Wes Welker marked with 15 catches against whatever was left of the Jets secondary beyond Darrelle Revis.

As such, Wilfork may not ever get the spotlight he richly deserves.

So here’s something you can put in three-inch headlines: Wilfork is as good an all-around football player as there is on the Patriots roster. No kidding.

Is he more important than Tom Brady? No. Does he keep a coordinator awake at night the way Randy Moss can? Maybe not.

But as far as doing everything his position requires at the highest possible level, Wilfork is right there with anyone. And the way yesterday’s 31-14 Patriots win played out was proof positive.

“I consider him one of the best players in the league,’’ said Jets center Nick Mangold, who’s tangled twice a year with Wilfork since 2006. “You have to worry about him. You have to consciously always know where he’s at. And know how you’re gonna work to defeat him. That adds pressure.

“Instead of worrying about the defense as a whole, you have to worry about that one guy.’’

The Jets didn’t do a good enough job of that early on.

On their rookie-piloted offense’s first series, they immediately churned out a first down, then ran into the problems Wilfork creates. Their fourth offensive play, a second and 7, went like this: Wilfork controlled Mangold, a Pro Bowler, at the point, quickly diagnosed the play, got in the backfield, and dropped Thomas Jones for a 3-yard loss.
That left the Jets in third and 10, a situation that Mark Sanchez looked woefully unequipped to handle, and failed to convert.

And that encapsulated how the Jets’ first half really went. Continually, they let their quarterback get into bad down-and-distance situations, many facilitated by Wilfork’s play, and watched him throw up all over his shoes.

His first pick? Third and 8. His second pick? Third and 8. How do you get the offense into those situations consistently? By holding the league’s top-ranked running game to 28 first-half yards at a 2.3-yard-per clip.

Doing that, to be sure, is an 11-man effort, with a particular emphasis on the front seven. But there’s no mistaking what the man in the middle means.

“Huge,’’ Brandon Meriweather said of Wilfork’s impact. “As you can see, if he’s not in there, they hit us for 8, 9 yards a carry. And when he’s in there, it’s a yard or two, if that.’’

The difference this year is not in his versatility as much as it is in how the Patriots are putting that versatility to work. He’s played as a shade nose (center’s outside shoulder) and 3-technique tackle (guard’s outside shoulder) in the nickel, and as the standard nose tackle, straight up on the center.

Two weeks ago, against Miami, the coaches decided he was the best choice to deal with mammoth left tackle Jake Long, so they played him as a 5-technique defensive end on the right side.

Last week, the club played almost exclusively in its nickel and dime packages - a situation that would seem to be a tough one for a player some wise guys derided as a “two-down’’ defensive tackle. Yet, somehow, he played 74 percent of the team’s snaps against Indy.

Yesterday it was back to the nose for most of the game.

In the second quarter, the Jets rolled receiver Brad Smith (a college quarterback) out in the Pistol formation to run a speed option, with rookie Shonn Greene as his pitch man. So the Patriots moved Wilfork out, playing him at left end. Proving his ability to move laterally, Wilfork worked through blocks down the line and dropped Greene for a 4-yard loss.

And the Jets knew it was coming, because it made sense for the Patriots to put their best run defender over there.
“The reason he moved over to my side is we run the ball so heavily to our right,’’ the Jets’ Damien Woody said. “He can line up at nose, he can line up at 5-technique, that’s two totally different worlds. To be able to do that, you gotta be versatile. And to do it at three different positions?

“He can line up on one side of the ball, or the other side, that’s like me lining up at left tackle.’’

Wilfork had five tackles yesterday, one for a loss.

And all this goes back to Wilfork’s commitment to the game. Misguided or not - you can check out Leon Washington’s situation for the other side of this - he declined to hold out of any mandatory activity in advance of his contract year, simply because that’s who he is.

“He’s one of the best example-setters on the team,’’ Meriweather said. “He never misses practice, he’s always doing the little extra things that makes someone great. As a young guy, I want to follow someone like that.’’

How long Meriweather and Co. will be able to do that is open to question.

But for now, he’s all the way on board with the Patriots, and they know exactly what they have.

“First, it’s hard to find a [325-pound] guy that good, and second, a guy who can do as many different things as Vince does,’’ coach Bill Belichick said. “His intelligence, his preparation, his natural instinctiveness playing on the defensive line, those are all positives in his favor. He’s able to make it happen.’’

And make it happen at as high a level as anyone on a pretty well-decorated team.

Click here to order Vince WIlfork’s proCane Rookie Card.



(boston.com)