QB receives more support this season

October 15, 2007|Bob Ryan, Globe columnist

IRVING, Texas - Week by week, we're learning just how great Tom Brady was last year. He was a champion thoroughbred carrying 130 pounds each and every time he took the field.

"I always said," mused Randy Moss - yes, Randy and Manny Being Manny speaking publicly in the same week! - "Peyton Manning has his receivers. Why can't Tom Brady have his?"

Ladies and gentlemen, he has them now.

You can argue very strenuously that this was an unwinnable game last year. No Laurence Maroney (again). Sammy Morris gets KO'd with a chest injury. This was a battle that would have to be won in the air, and, no disrespect, but Reche Caldwell, Doug Gabriel, and Jabar Gaffney in feature roles would not have cut it against this particular Dallas team.

But this is 2007, and Tom Brady has a smorgasbord of superior receivers. If it wasn't Wes Welker (11 catches, 124 yards, 2 touchdowns) it was Donte' Stallworth (7 catches, 136 yards, 1 TD). If it wasn't either of them, it was Mr. Moss himself (6 catches, 59 yards, 1 TD, one glorious catch in the end zone properly overturned by review and one bogus offensive interference call taking away another TD).

The final score was New England 48, Dallas 27, and whether it was or wasn't really a 21-point game it was a game in which Brady needed the help of great receivers to get the job done and he got it.

Brady's final haul was five touchdown passes, which set a personal high and matched a team high. He could have had seven, and he most definitely should have had six. He has 21 TD passes in six games and people are openly discussing the possibility of him approaching or shattering Peyton Manning's season record of 49.

Is it even remotely necessary to inform you good Patriots fans that this is a topic the QB is not pleased to discuss?

"I haven't thought about it at all," he sighed. "I don't set my goals like that. Individual records are based on the opportunities you get."

And you can be sure Brady will be seen in public with a homely librarian before he engages in any discussion about the difference between the receivers he was forced to work with last season and the ones he has now.

That's my job.

Let's just say that the very fact that Scott Pioli and Bill Belichick went out and got Messrs. Welker, Stallworth, and, of course, Moss represented one of the great public mea culpas in New England sports history. They could have upgraded the receiving corps with pretty good receivers. But they went for it all. They have given Brady two great receivers in Moss and Welker, and one pretty darn good one in Stallworth, who, after being on the back burner as Moss got off to a great start, has emerged as a major menace to opposing defenses. The Patriots brass made up for leaving its noble QB high and dry last year with a big wet offseason smooch.