Conservative approach right against Peyton

Having lost all five times he faced Peyton Manning when the Colts quarterback played from start to finish, Jets coach Rex Ryan learned a valuable lesson. If you can't confuse Manning with pressure or hit him enough to rattle him, then dial it back.

For the opposition, the safest way for the ball to come out of Manning's hand is via a handoff to a running back. One mistake in pass coverage resulted in a 57-yard scoring pass when Manning hit Pierre Garçon for the only touchdown of the first half in Saturday night's wild-card playoff game. But the worst mistake against the Colts' league-worst ground game resulted in only a 14-yard gain.

Ryan's more conservative approach ended with a 17-16 victory even though he got it by the skin of his teeth on Nick Folk's 32-yard field goal as time expired. As much pride as Ryan takes in his attack defense, this time it was better to play possum with Manning than dare him to beat the blitz.

"I'm a stubborn guy, but I'm not that stubborn," Ryan said. "I wasn't going to take the same kind of butt-kicking that I usually take from him. We definitely mixed our coverages, played him straight up, mixed in some 'loaded zones' and different things. Very rarely did we come after him.

"You still have to give that guy an unbelievable amount of credit. Here I'm trying to run some 'trap' coverages, and all he did was look at it and say, 'Let's run the ball over here' where we were vulnerable. He wasn't selfish. He took the first downs."

It wasn't that Manning made any mistakes. He didn't. He took what the Jets' defense gave him. As inside linebacker Bart Scott explained, the Jets went with a "light box," meaning they had fewer defenders than usual packed in the middle of the field where they could stop the run. Sometimes it was only four linemen and Scott and David Harris at linebacker. When Scott left the field, strong safety Eric Smith cheated up to help against the run.

Sure, it was a challenge to contain the Colts' running game, with Smith making 10 tackles and Harris nine. But as Scott said, "If you're handing off, you're not passing."

Cornerback Darrelle Revis covered top wide receiver Reggie Wayne in brilliant fashion, limiting him to a yard on the only pass Manning threw his way. That took away another huge weapon. But the key was making Manning try just as many runs as passes.

"The thing we did well was making him check into plays he didn't want to check into," Revis said. "We just tried to disguise and move around. We had a good key that we knew the plays he was checking into most of the time. Sometimes we didn't, but we put ourselves in the best position on defense to try to stop those plays."

The question now is whether the Jets' defense can repeat that success Sunday at New England, where the Patriots and quarterback Tom Brady mopped the floor with them, 45-3, on Dec. 6. But the Jets have split four games against the Patriots since Ryan became coach, so they know it can be done.

"It will give us confidence going into next week," Revis said, "playing another great quarterback in Tom Brady."