Apparently it had been a relatively quiet early week in Boston sports. Tiger seemed to be running out of mistresses and the Sox hadn't made news with the Lackey and Cameron acquisitions yet. So some sensationalism needed to be produced and so the Sunday Moss performance became the crisis du jour.
Did Moss have a lousy game? Yes he did. He caught one ball for a 16 yard gain which he promptly fumbled. In another effort it appeared that he cut a route short on a ball that was intercepted. However, despite his lack of production it was also obvious that as usual for most of the game Moss had double coverage. In addition unless my eyes deceived me he was quite active blocking in the run game.
Did he quit on the team? No, he didn't and if you examine his tenure here in New England it is apparent that he has been more than we ever hoped for when Belechick picked him up off the Oakland scrap heap for a fourth round draft choice.
This isn't the first time that Moss has been accused of being a dog but one need only look at his career stats and wonder if it is his peers or simply self important so called experts in the viewership that make these claims.
You can view his entire body of work here: http://www.nfl.com/players/randymoss/profile?id=MOS699912 But let me make a few observations. In his first year as a Patriot he was a large part of a team that went 16 and 0 in the regular season. In that season he caught 98 balls for 1498 yards and 23 touchdowns.
They then marched through the playoffs and was a miracle catch by David Tyree and a botched interception by Asante Samuel from winning a Super Bowl. In that game, the biggest of his life, he caught the go ahead touchdown with 2:45 left to go in the game.
In his second year in the very first quarter of the first game the Patriots lose the best quarterback in the NFL as Brady goes down with a knee injury and is out for the season. Matt Cassell, a guy who had not started a single football game since high school becomes the Patriot starter. Did Moss quit? No, in fact for the ninth time in his career he went for over a thousand yards. Moss was a big reason why that team went 11 and 5 and Cassell went on to score a huge contract. Thank you very much Randy!
This year Moss has already exceeded last years production after 13 games. This from a guy who is in his 12th season which is about 6 seasons beyond the life of the average NFL wide receiver. He certainly has to be in his twilight years and is bound to have a game or two where he is simply human. There is also the distinct possibility that he is injured like most people who are in the 17th game of the NFL season (13 regular and four pre-season) along with countless practices.
But make no mistake about it, Moss is durable and he shows up game after game. Out of a total of 189 possible regular season games over his career, Moss has only missed 6. During that career he has caught 912 balls for 14,275 yards and 144 total touchdowns which is second all time. Out of all that production in catches, yards and touchdowns and an untold number of hits from angry opponents, Moss has fumbled a total of 12 times.
Moss may have bad taste in clothes or hairdo's and he may not be as cooperative as the Punditocracy might like. He may even sulk a little when things don't go his way. His team mates have no question about his work ethic and Belechik has never entertained the idea of sitting him down.
Moss is one of the best 2 or three wide receivers that have ever put on shoulder pads. He certainly is no quitter. My guess is he bounces back and we get to enjoy watching this gifted athlete play out the rest of his career. Oh, and we did win the game.
