Devin McCourty on D&C: ‘Always a little extra energy’ vs. Jets

Devin McCourty

Patriots cornerback Devin McCourty made his weekly appearance on the Dennis & Callahan show Friday morning, as the Pats prepare for Sunday’s game against the rival Jets. To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page.

McCourty tried to not play up the game too much, but he did acknowledge, “There’s always a little extra energy. It’s always a big game. Any divisional game, when we go in, both teams know each other well. Everybody will be coming into this game excited and ready to just get after it.”

Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie said this week that the Jets’ game plan is to “beat the hell out of their receivers.” Responded McCourty: “That’s just a guy, he has a lot of confidence. He’s a great player, and he’s just competitive. I think that’s what all that stems from. He goes out there and he wants to compete. I think that’s probably where he’s coming from with that comment.”

There has been speculation that Darrelle Revis could spend some time covering Wes Welker. McCourty said he’s defended Welker in practice, and it isn’t easy.

Said McCourty: “I’ve been on him a couple of times. It’s tough for me, just like you see those guys in the game covering him. … When you put his quickness together with his knowledge of the game of football and what’s going on, it’s tough to just cover him. Because he knows exactly where he wants to be, how long he’s going to take to get there. Sometimes you think you’re playing great coverage on him, but he’s really just setting everything up to get open maybe later in the down or something. Wes is a guy who knows what he’s doing, and he has great athletic ability.”

The Pats defense continues to put up numbers that rank it near the bottom of the league. McCourty, however, sees the group getting better.

“I think it’s going to be week by week,” he said. “We’ve already made improvements when you talk about from Week 1 until now. … We understand how we have to play defense, and each week we’re getting a little better.”