There isn’t much separating athletes at this level. It’s not much more than a couple of inches. So the question is, “How do I get those inches on my side?” The first rule is simple: You cannot cheat yourself.

Those inches come with preparation. I can sit down on a Saturday night and know certain predicaments I’ll face on Sunday. Before it happens, I know how a DB will respond to specific routes and how we’ll be able to take advantage. It’s all in my head before I step on the field. I visualize it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve caught a pass or scored a touchdown and thought, That’s exactly how I knew it would happen.

There was a play against San Diego, a TD pass on a corner-post route, that is a perfect example. (It proved to be the decisive score in the Raiders AFC West-clinching 13-6 win.) It’s a route that only works if you stare the safety (in this case, the Chargers Rogers Beckett) straight up and down, fake to the corner and go to the post. But it’s not that easy. You can’t give it away with your eyes or your feet. You have to look straight ahead. You’ve got to pick the perfect time to make the move toward the corner. I hit it right, just the way I’d run it every day in practice. I’d watched Beckett in films, and I had a good idea how he would react. When it happened, it was perfect. I came out of the break and the ball was there. In the locker room after the game, Al Davis shook my hand and said, “That was an easy one.” I answered, “Nothing’s easy in this game.”

It’s repetition and preparation. The corner-post is a route I’ve done over and over in practice, and in the game you do it the exact same way. That’s the key: In the heat of battle, you have to respond under pressure with the same precision. You can’t rush just because it’s a big situation. You have to be calm or you’ll lose those inches you need to make the play successful.

You cannot cheat it. You cannot fake to the corner early because you’ll show it too soon and the guy’s going to get a break on you. You can’t cut it too late or the safety won’t buy it. He’ll see where the play’s going before it gets there. Either way, it’s a couple of inches between success and failure.

Everything I do is about feel based on preparation. You run it until you have it down and then you run it the same way in the game. I don’t think, “I’m going to fake after such-and-such number of yards, then I’m going to cut after three more steps.” You can’t be mechanical. It’s like there’s a clock ticking in my head. It’s been ticking for a long time now, but it still works.

If Rich Gannon and I are working a route on the outside, that clock lets me know when to come out of the route, when he’s going to throw and when I need to turn. It’s experience and execution. I rely on that clock to give me the inches I need out there. Think about it: How often does a receiver come out of a route and catch the ball on his fingertips? If he turns too soon or too late it’s an incompletion or an interception. The defense is looking for those inches too. They’re trying to predict what you’re going to do.

For me, success means being prepared to execute. Everyone sees what happens on Sunday, but it’s what you do the rest of the week that determines who gets those inches.

They are out there, but you have to work for them.

This article appears in the January 21 issue of ESPN The Magazine.