Randy Moss is, as Sheldon Brown said, "probably the best wide receiver to play the game."
"You can't throw Randy Moss a bad pass," Brown said yesterday morning, after getting a massage on his day off. "He has a wingspan that's unbelievable; therefore, if the ball is eight feet high, he can go get it. If it's low and in front three or four yards short, he's long enough to stretch back and catch it. I've never seen a guy that tall with probably as much athleticism."
So the Eagles' depleted secondary will have no shot Sunday when it takes on Moss and the New England Patriots' offense at Gillette Stadium?
"I think everybody's beatable," the Eagles cornerback said. "This is what's funny to me, and this is why I wouldn't gamble. Say Tom Brady takes a blow to the head in the first quarter and gets a concussion. Are they beatable? Say Randy Moss runs a go route and pulls a hamstring. Are they beatable? It always takes a total team effort. Everybody seems to forget that. The game we play, it's such a violent sport, you never know when a guy is going to go down."
So there you go. The most effective way to stop the 6-foot-4 Moss, he of the four touchdown catches against Buffalo last Sunday, is literally to take him out of the game.
Now, Brown wasn't implying that that will be the Eagles' strategy - he is not a dirty player. But it is a valid strategy, because no other this season has worked. With Tom Brady delivering the ball with amazing accuracy, Moss, at the age of 30 and into his 10th season, is having a career year.
Through 10 games, Moss leads the NFL with 1,052 receiving yards, 16 touchdowns, and 96 points scored. With just over two minutes to go in the first half against Buffalo, Moss surpassed 1,000 yards for the season, the first Patriots receiver to hit that plateau since Troy Brown in 2001.
According to an NFL Network report, Moss has received three $350,000 bonuses for catching 45, then 55, then 65 passes. He now has 66 on the season, and with nine more will receive an additional $350,000 check.
Just how valuable is Moss? Consider this from his coach, Bill Belichick, who is not prone to heaping praise on any player:
