Belichick Knows Best: Patriots Declaw Panthers

The past week for the Patriots has been an eventful one. On Wednesday morning, Brady and Gisele celebrated the birth of their first child together. To add to Brady’s distractions, he was dealing with a finger injury, making his chances of playing a game time decision. Later that same day, four Patriots players, Randy Moss, Derrick Burgess, Adalius Thomas, and Gary Guyton, were immediately sent home after showing up late to a meeting due to icy conditions on the roads. There were mixed reactions to this event, as Thomas whined that Belichick was being too harsh, and Burgess took full responsibility for his lateness. Some people speculated that Belichick was trying to prove a point to the team. That he was trying to motivate them and set a tempo for the rest of the season. Brady and Wes Welker presented their opinions of the team’s effort as of late saying it was poor, and that some players weren’t trying on occasion. These comments came after an unacceptable loss to the Miami Dolphins on December 6th. “When you’re 7-5, you’re obviously not doing everything right. So what you are doing, if you continue to do it, you’re going to get a lot of the same, which is pretty average,” Brady said. “I always think there’s only one way to do it, which is to put more into it and to put everything into it.”
The commitment and dedication Brady and Welker have for the team became apparent on Sunday against the Panthers.
After the first quarter of the game the Panthers looked like the better team, holding onto a 7-0 lead. Their lone touchdown of the game came on a forty one yard pass from quarterback Matt Moore to star wide out Steve Smith. This only furthers the notion that the Patriots secondary is far from the caliber it has been in past seasons. The Patriots would tie things up in the second quarter on a three yard touchdown run by veteran running back Kevin Faulk. After the first half, with the score tied 7-7, the Patriots headed to the locker room. Now, I have no sources to support this at all, but if I had to guess, Belichick probably made the game plan of, “give the ball to Welker and block.” 10 of Brady’s 19 completions were to Welker, who finished the day with 10 catches for 105 yards. Both Welker and Brady shined in the second half as they took the team and led them to victory. The biggest play of the game may have come with one minute and six seconds left in the third quarter when Brady threw a five yard TD pass to TE Ben Watson. This would prove to be the game winning score. The Patriots would add on two more field goals and win the game 20-10.

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After the game, two Panther defensive backs, Chris Gamble and Chris Harris, shredded Randy Moss for his “lack of effort” on the field. “We knew he was going to shut it down. That's what we wanted him to do. That's what we did ... He'd just give up a lot. Slow down, he's not going deep, not trying to run a route. You can tell, his body language.” Harris added, “I don't want to say he quits, but he kind of doesn't run the routes the way they're supposed to be run. If you get a jam on him, he'll just ease up. He had the one catch, and he fumbled. ... We stayed on top of him. We were not gonna let him catch a deep pass. That's his game. If he can't get it going, he gets out of sync.” Both Belichick and Brady responded to these remarks with fervent answers. Brady stated, “When guys play Randy, they want to show everyone what they can do. I guess they came out of the game pretty confident. Randy is one of the best players in the history of the NFL. When it doesn't go perfect out there, everyone wants to jump on Randy. It's all of us, and we all have to do a better job.” Later in the radio interview he continued to say, “I've seen plenty of plays made on Chris Gamble, too, over the course of the season.” Belichick countered the accusations by saying, “My response would be that's a lot of conversation coming from a team that lost another game.” Addressing the issue of Moss’s poor showing of only one catch for 16 yards, which he then fumbled, Belichick said, “Stats are for losers. Final scores are for winners.” The win against the Panthers was not impressive, but it was a step in the right direction. Now the Pats look ahead to their game against Buffalo. While they still have some work to do to reach the heights they expect to achieve, Belichick is starting to figure things out.

By Matt Williams
ProFootball-fans.com New England Patriots Correspondent