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September 24, 2007
Patriots: Lateral thinking

Globe Staff Photo / Jim Davis
Wes Welker flips a lateral to Randy Moss.
Everybody loved Randy Moss's over-the shoulder touchdown catch from Tom Brady, but my favorite play of yesterday's 38-7 Patriots-Bills game was the lateral pass Wes Welker threw to Randy Moss as he was going down at the hands of two Bills defenders after catching and running 26 yards with a Tom Brady pass. Moss was standing close to him, as though he had come to help, and Welker flipped it to him as he sank at the Buffalo 15-yard line. Moss then took it for another 11 yards.
Brady, later, was asked about it:
Were you surprised at the lateral that Wes Walker threw?
"I don’t know what they were doing, those two. Maybe Wes learned that in Miami. I’ve never seen it around here. I’m sure Coach is going to [yell at] us for that. It’s just another one of those things that makes tapes. It turned out this time. I don’t know how well it turns out most of the time."
-- PatsBlog
Coach Belichick's reaction:
BB: I don't think that was the best play that I've ever seen; let's put it that way. When the players have the ball out there, they have to make the plays and it's their job to do what they think is best. Being aggressive and trying to make plays is good. Being careless and not taking care of the ball is bad. I'll talk to Wes about it and see exactly what he saw. I don't think we want to make a habit of that. In that case, it worked out for a few extra yards. It's hard to get on him, but we'll try. We'll get on him anyway.
-- PatsBlog
WR Wes Welker (on his lateral to Randy Moss)
"That is something I'm probably going to get yelled at tomorrow [about]. I don't know. It just kind of happened. It's one of those plays where he was there, I felt like it was safe, a possibility to score, so -- unfortunately, Randy wasn't able to finish for me [laughter]. I'm thinking 'he's going to finish', you know?" -- (Globe, Reiss's Pieces).
Mother of invention. It was brilliant handoff. It sure beat going down with the ball.
Here's to mavericks who make it work.
Posted by Sheila Lennon
at 11:44 AM | Permalink