"If you see a different, wider-eyed look on Plaxico Burress' face Sunday in Oakland, where the Jets play the Raiders, this will be the reason why: man-to-man coverage.

That's a staple of the Raiders' defense, and Burress, who felt suffocated by the cornerback-safety bracketed coverage he faced last Sunday against the Jaguars, welcomes it.

Because of the Raiders' scheme, Burress is quietly thinking Sunday has the potential to be his breakout game as a Jet after he was shut out by the Jaguars.

"If you're a receiver this is the kind of game you want to play in — against up-close-and-personal man-to-man coverage where it's mano-a-mano," Burress said yesterday. "If you can beat man-to-man coverage you can do great things in this league. That's one of the first things Cris Carter told me when I first got into the league. He said, 'If you can beat man-to-man coverage you can play forever.'"