In the December matchup between the Patriots and Jets, Revis Island was a lonely place.

That night, Tom Brady attempted 29 passes, and only a precious few were in the direction of New York cornerback Darrelle Revis. The Patriots steered clear of the All-Pro corner, one of the big reasons they were able to have so much success in the passing game: Brady finished the game 21-for-29 for 326 yards, four touchdowns, zero picks and a near-perfect quarterback rating of 148.9.

Instead, the Patriots were able to exploit a variety of mismatches. Brady and company created situations where smaller and quicker pass catchers were able to use their speed against bigger and slower defenders. And if New England wasn’t doing that, it was finding a way to get bigger and more physical targets matched up against smaller, overmatched defensive backs.

It happened all night: In the first quarter, Rob Gronkowski was tripped up by smaller defensive back Eric Smith — Jim Leonhard’s replacement — drawing a 36-yard defensive pass interference call that set up New England’s first touchdown of the night. Later in the first, Deion Branch and Brady connected on a fourth-and-3 on a quick slant over the middle, taking advantage of the fact that Smith and corner Antonio Cromartie were late to the spot. (He outraced the field 25 yards for the touchdown.)

In the second quarter, Danny Woodhead had a 35-yard gainer after finding himself matched up with defensive lineman Mike DeVito. (Soon after, the Patriots scored again, with Brady finding Brandon Tate for the touchdown.) And in the third, Wes Welker exploited a matchup with Drew Coleman, which led to an 18-yard touchdown pass.

Revis spent some of the evening on Welker, as well as Brandon Tate. (The bulk of Welker’s seven-catch, 80-yard, one-touchdown effort appeared to come against a variety of other New York defenders.) But he rarely saw much action on his side of the field.

It’s something that Revis is now used to — in the wild card contest against the Colts, Revis locked down Reggie Wayne, holding him to one catch for nine yards. The night left Wayne fuming, as the receiver complained to the media after the game that he was “irrelevant.”

On Tuesday, New England’s Deion Branch took up for his fellow receiver.

“I can’t sit here and say, ‘Yeah, he shut him down,’“ said Branch. “There were some times that Reggie was open and he didn’t get the ball and there were other times that he was covered. It’s 50-50. It’s just hard to sit back and say, ‘He did this. He did that.’ Both of them are great players.”

Regardless of how things happened back in December — as well as last week against the Colts — Revis told reporters on Tuesday he fully expected the Patriots to try and come after him on Sunday.

“Every week, I expect the quarterbacks to come to me,” Revis said. “And this week, I’m expecting Tom Brady to throw at me.”

His statement aside, very little would be gained by the Patriots going after Revis on Sunday. While he remains without peer, New York is lacking in real quality depth in the secondary, at last the sort of depth that would allow them to match up in single coverage against many of the New England receivers or tight ends. Leonhard, one of their defensive leaders who was injured in the days before the December game, remains on the sideline. And No. 2 corner Antonio Cromartie played well earlier in the season when he was matched up on former Patriots receiver Randy Moss, but had his issues in December against Branch — he yielded three catches for 64 yards and a touchdown.

Nevertheless, Revis believes the Jets secondary can surprise its critics.

“I think we match up with them very well,” he told reporters. “We just have to find a good game plan for this week and go into New England flying high.”

Meanwhile, as was the case in December, New England’s varied array of pass catchers would appear to offer too much in the way of potential mismatches for a Jets’ pass defense. Welker and Branch are operating at the top of their game, and combined with rookie tight ends Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez (the latter of whom had six catches for 101 yards in Week 2 against New York).

“If they want to put me on Danny Woodhead, it really [doesn’t] matter,” Revis said. “I just have to do my job and trust my teammates to do their jobs as well.”