FOXBORO, Mass. — Everyone knows Bill Belichick loves Rutgers guys. So it came as no surprise Thursday when he heaped praise on Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Mohamed Sanu.
“He’s big, he’s tough, he’s got great hands — tremendous hands,” the New England Patriots head coach said. “He has a great catch radius. He catches everything. He’s a tough blocker, and he’s hard to tackle. He’s an explosive player.
“Sanu would help any team. There’s not a team in the league he wouldn’t help.”
Sanu, a college teammate of Patriots defensive backs Devin McCourty, Logan Ryan and Duron Harmon, is in his first season with the Falcons after spending his first four with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Playing in the considerable shadow of All-Pro wideout Julio Jones, Sanu quietly put up strong numbers, catching a career-high 59 passes for 653 yards and four touchdowns in 15 regular-season games. The ex-Scarlet Knight caught two more touchdown passes from MVP favorite Matt Ryan in two playoff games to help the Falcons secure their second Super Bowl berth in franchise history.
Atlanta’s No. 2 wideout also has the ability to throw the ball, though he has yet to showcase that skill since joining the Falcons. Sanu chucked it five times on trick plays during his time with the Bengals, completing all five passes for 177 yards and two scores.
“We know he can do it,” said Belchick, whose team will take on the Falcons next Sunday night in Super Bowl LI. “Look, this is the kind of game where a team could be working on a play like that all year and running out of games. It could be a lot of other plays, too. A reverse, a pass, a double pass, some kind of gadget play. Absolutely.”
Belichick knows a thing or two about well-timed gadget plays. New England used a double pass and unorthodox formations to beat the Baltimore Ravens in the 2014 divisional round, threw a touchdown pass to offensive tackle Nate Solder in the AFC Championship Game that year, and scored on a flea flicker to wideout Chris Hogan in Sunday’s AFC title game win over the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Patriots coaches later revealed Julian Edelman’s pass to Danny Amendola against Baltimore had been in the works for months.
“The longer the season goes, I think the more you have to prepared for those kind of plays,” Belichick said Thursday. “If a team’s been working on it, at some point, they’re probably going to use it. … So, if you’ve been working on a play all year, a lot of coordinators will (say), ‘Might as well call it.’ ”
To quote the great Dan Fouts:
Thumbnail photo via Dan Powers/Appleton Post Crescent via USA TODAY NETWORK
