Noise at MetLife should help Jets vs. Pats

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. -- The way LaDainian Tomlinson sees things, the Jets, not the Patriots, hold the upper hand in Sunday's prime-time game.

Sure, the Patriots got the best of the Jets on Oct. 9, sending them to their third straight defeat. But Tomlinson believes it should be different this time around, partly because the AFC East rivals are meeting on the Jets' turf at MetLife Stadium.

"For us, we definitely feel like we have the advantage," the running back said Thursday. "We are playing at home behind our crowd and hopefully things go like we want them to go. We've played well against them at home and I think part of that really is the fans. When they are on offense, it's kind of hard for them to [audible] and do a lot of stuff they can do at home.

"Our crowd gets loud and the play clock starts to go, and they still haven't communicated their signals and their checks, and it makes it hard on them. So that's one way they've had trouble with us."

The Jets' home turf hasn't been kind to Tom Brady since Rex Ryan arrived. The Patriots lost their two last visits here and Brady was pressured each time, posting numbers that don't mirror the ones he puts up against the Jets at Gillette Stadium.

In his past two visits to New Jersey, Brady completed only 51.8 percent of his attempts (43 of 83), for an average of 232 yards, 5.6 per attempt. He had a 62.8 rating, with three interceptions and two touchdowns. He was sacked only once but was hit constantly.

Compare that to Brady's machine-like efficiency against the Jets in the past two regular-season games at New England. Brady connected on 70 percent of his passes (49 of 70), averaging 318 yards a game and 9.1 yards per attempt, with a 123.8 rating. He threw five touchdown passes, was not intercepted and was sacked five times.

"Their offense is built so much on his ability to communicate," defensive coordinator Mike Pettine said, "not only with his receivers, but on his offensive line. With some of the things we do blitz-wise, they cause some problems for them, more so here because it's hard for him to maybe change a protection and re-identify the [middle linebacker]. When he's pointing out the key for protection for the linemen, it's a lot easier to do that at home, where he can do it verbally.

"We feel like we have the best crowd in the NFL, and our guys feed off that."

Ryan has pleaded all week for the crowd to be into it, hoping to make things as difficult as possible for the Patriots. The Jets would love to recreate the boisterous atmosphere at Giants Stadium during the Jets' 16-9 win on Sept. 20, 2009.

"People said the old Meadowlands, they've never heard it that loud before," Pettine said. "I just remember being in the press box, and on the last fourth down when it went incomplete, you could feel the ground shaking. Our guys love that, feed off it."

Bart Scott said: "The energy of our crowd, when you are tired, when it's tough, the crowd lifts you up. We feed off of that energy, and usually when we play the Patriots at home, it's a lot of energy. People are jacked up. It's good that finally we get to host a prime-time game and face them here in that type of event, because I think our fans are excited. They understand how important it is, but they also understand how important they are and how important they've been.''

Notes & quotes: S Brodney Pool (knee) and RB Joe McKnight (toe) didn't practice, and Ryan said he's concerned Pool won't be available Sunday.