Jets Week 1 Anti-Game Ball : Darrelle Revis

Since the Jets lost yesterday, it is our sad duty to hand out an anti-game ball.

As always, I have two big rules when giving out a game ball or an anti-game ball. Whenever possible, I try to avoid giving them to the quarterback or to the same player more than once. That is simple in this case. Ryan Fitzpatrick was not a top contender for the honor this week, and we are in the first week of the season so there can be no duplicate.

Two players came close. Nick Folk was part of the mix. When you lose by one, a lot of the blame has to go to a kicker who gets a 22 yard field goal blocked and misses a PAT. Marcus Gilchrist also had a brutal game. He was partially responsible for a long A.J. Green touchdown, got run over on another touchdown, and committed a critical penalty on the drive that lost the game for the Jets.

I am going with Darrelle Revis, though. By some reports I saw, the Bengals were 10 for 10 targeting Revis. This was striking because he had the lowest completion percentage allowed on targets a year ago. The touchdown to A.J. Green seemed to be more the fault of others, but Revis is paid a lot of money in part because he is supposed to be good enough to bail the team out when things break down.

The biggest play for me was not the touchdown to Green, though. It was the eleven yard completion to Green on third and thirteen on Cincinnati's game winning drive. While the Bengals did not pick up the first down, it turned what would have been a 58 yard desperation field goal try into a very makeable 47 yarder for Mike Nugent. It really hurt the Jets.

Given the importance of the player and the matchup, my anti-game ball goes to Darrelle Revis for his performance yesterday.

Who gets yours?