There’s no debate: Moss is at his best when he’s giving an all-out effort, and he’s known to exert himself when he’s happy and feels the support of his organization. By reasserting their confidence in their star wide receiver, Belichick and Brady did their best to make sure they don’t lose their most electric playmaker — emotionally or psychologically — for the rest of the season.
After the Patriots beat the Panthers on Sunday, a pair of Carolina defensive backs, cornerback Chris Gamble and safety Chris Harris, told The Boston Globe that they knew Moss would “shut it down” and “give up” if they defended him properly. Moss had one catch for 16 yards, one fumble and two drops during the Patriots’ 20-10 victory. He also appeared to give up on a route, which led to a Gamble interception, and Moss was flagged for a key false start on third-and-8 from the Carolina 40-yard line when the outcome was still undecided late in the fourth quarter.
It was Moss’ third regular-season game with just one reception during his Patriots career, and it came in a game when he could have quelled a week’s worth of criticism. Moss didn’t fight to break up an interception during the fourth quarter of the Pats’ loss in Miami on Dec. 6, and he was sent home from Gillette Stadium for showing up late to last Wednesday’s team meeting. Sensing a lack of effort, Patriots fans showered Moss with boos during each of his Sunday miscues.
When Belichick was asked Monday to respond to the Panthers’ criticism of Moss, the media-savvy head coach didn’t disappoint.
“My response,” Belichick said, “would be that’s a lot of conversation coming from a team that just lost another game.”
The Panthers fell to 5-8 with the loss to New England, and they haven’t been a playoff contender all season.
“I have a lot of respect for Randy,” Belichick said. “I think he’s one of our best players. If you watch other teams defend him, watch other teams play against him, they think the same way, other than these two guys from Carolina after they lost another game. I guess they don’t think that way, but they haven’t won a lot of games now.”
Moss was voted as one of the team’s captains this season, a clear sign of how well-respected he is in the Patriots’ locker room. There is no denying that factor.
But there is also no way an outside observer can defend Moss’ effort against the Panthers. Maybe he was reacting to Wednesday’s banning by Belichick. Maybe Moss is hurt and didn’t want to fight through both the pain and the double-teams. Or, maybe it’s something else entirely.
Either way, the Moss who caught an NFL-record 23 touchdowns in 2007 was out to lunch on Sunday. Moss has six receptions (on 15 targets) for 149 yards and one touchdown in the last three games. Statistics can’t tell the whole story because the argument can be made that Moss draws coverage away from Wes Welker, who has 26 catches for 304 yards in those three games.
“You know how I feel about stats,” Belichick said. “Really, stats are for losers. Final scores are for winners, and that’s really what it’s about.”
Belichick would not address Moss’ individual performance or effort, preferring to defer to the offense as a whole. Brady, however, backed up Moss on Monday morning during his weekly radio spot on WEEI.
“He went to the place where he thought the ball was going to be,” Brady said of Moss’ out route during the first-quarter interception. “I don’t think you blame Randy on that. I’m the one ultimately responsible for the football.”
Moss has 69 receptions for 1,074 yards and a team-high nine touchdowns in 2009. Entering Monday, Moss was 13th in the league in receptions, sixth in receiving yards and tied for fourth in touchdown catches. Certainly, he is having a solid year statistically, especially considering he’s sharing catches with Welker. Moss has had some tough games this season — Week 2 against the New York Jets, Week 5 against the Denver Broncos and Week 12 against the New Orleans Saints all come to mind — but Sunday was the first time he’s visibly let off the gas pedal on multiple occasions.
Do professional athletes mail it in on game days? Yes, it’s absolutely a common occurrence. Just look at the Tennessee Titans during their 59-0 loss to the Patriots earlier this season. But Moss will forever be haunted for telling reporters in Minnesota in 2001, “I play when I want to play.” That’s a stigma no one can shake.
For the first time in Moss’ Patriots career, that quote has come back to haunt him, but Brady refused to let the criticism continue Monday. It was a smart, calculated move on the part of the unquestioned team leader, who knows he needs Moss for New England’s offense to regain its stride before the playoffs.
“Everyone takes liberty to say what they want to say in a situation like [Sunday],” Brady told WEEI. “I’ve seen plenty of plays made on Chris Gamble, too, over the course of the season. When they play Randy, they want to show everyone what they can do. I guess they came out of the game pretty confident. Randy’s one of the best players in the history of the NFL. When it doesn’t go perfect out there, everyone always wants to jump on Randy. But it’s all of us, and we’ve got to do a better job. And I’m real proud of the way we won.”
Brady went on to say that Moss is “one of the favorite guys” he’s ever played with and that “he’s one of my good friends on the team.”
Moss had a season-high 12 receptions for 141 yards in the 2009 opener against the Buffalo Bills, who host the Patriots on Sunday. A similar performance would halt the external criticism, even if Brady says Moss has nothing to prove to the organization internally.
