By HOWARD ULMAN
AP Sports Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.(AP) -- Tom Brady lofted a perfect pass down the
right sideline. Randy Moss reached up and made a remarkable
one-handed catch at the 1-yard line.
Just four offensive plays earlier, that same New England
connection failed when Brady threw deep down the middle and
Miami's Vontae Davis intercepted - Davis would be burned by
Moss's acrobatic 36-yard reception just short of the goal line.
"Most of the time in a situation like that quarterbacks say,
`You know what? I'm not throwing that ball again because I
already threw an interception,"' former Patriots safety Rodney
Harrison said, "but Tom and Randy, they have such a good
relationship, a trust within one another.
"Brady throws it up again and Randy comes down with a one-hand
grab," Harrison added.
One-hand or two, short pass or long, Moss and Brady have become
one of the NFL's most productive combinations in only their
second full season together.
After being traded by the Oakland Raiders, Moss caught an
NFL-record 23 touchdown passes in 2007, all from Brady. In their
first game this season after Brady missed all but part of the
opener in 2008 with an injury, they teamed up for 12
completions.
Brady set an NFL record with 50 touchdown passes in 2007 - his
last a 65-yarder to Moss - breaking the mark of 49 in 2004 by
Peyton Manning of Indianapolis.
"Obviously, what Moss had done before he got to New England was
awfully impressive," Manning said, "and I think everybody knew
once New England signed him that the two of them were going to
make for a tough combination, and that's certainly proven to be
true."
Moss's catch against Davis - right arm outstretched against
tight coverage - set up Laurence Maroney's 1-yard touchdown run
midway through the first quarter of last Sunday's 27-17 win over
the Dolphins.
It was one of six Moss made for 147 yards. One of those plays
covered 71 yards, a touchdown on which he ran the final 60.
"We know each other pretty well. We have a great relationship on
the field, off the field. He's a very smart football player and
I think we give him a lot of opportunities to do the things that
he does well," Brady said. "A lot of quarterbacks can throw him
the ball and he makes everybody look good. Plays like the one
last week, with the long touchdown, a pretty simple play for a
quarterback."
The admiration is mutual. After Brady threw two touchdown passes
to Benjamin Watson in the final 2:06 to beat the Buffalo Bills
25-24 in the opener, Moss praised his leadership.
"When you have a guy like that leading you down the field," Moss
said, "you can't do nothing but try to run through a brick wall
for him."
They're still far behind the NFL's most prolific scoring
combinations, a list topped by the 112 touchdown passes from
Manning to Marvin Harrison from 1998-2008. Jim Kelly and Andre
Reed hooked up for 65 touchdowns with Buffalo from 1986-96,
fourth in NFL history.
"There are different things you can do when you start feeling
comfortable with each other. You can give that little nod that
tells him what to do," Kelly said. "Brady and Moss both had
their good years already so when you have a great receiver and a
great quarterback teaming up, they know what it takes."
In just 25 regular-season games together, they've connected on
28 touchdowns heading into Sunday night's game at the Colts.
Rodney Harrison was Brady's teammate for six seasons in which he
also tried to break up Manning's passes.
"I don't think you can even compare Tom Brady and Randy Moss" to
the Indianapolis duo, Harrison said. "Maybe in the sense that,
yes, they both set records, but what Marvin Harrison and Peyton
have done over a decade ... it was just something that I've
never really seen before."
But Marvin Harrison is out of football while Brady and Moss,
both 32, are still rolling.
They wasted no time showing what two of the NFL's best players
at their positions could do together. In their first game, Moss
caught nine passes for 183 yards and a 51-yard touchdown in the
2007 opener of a 16-0 regular season.
Then came the injury midway through the first quarter of the
first game in 2008 against Kansas City. Brady was hit by
defensive back Bernard Pollard but managed to throw a 28-yard
completion to Moss, who lost the ball on a fumble.
Brady had accuracy problems early this season and has missed a
wide-open Moss at times, most notably on an overthrown pass in
the end zone in a 20-17 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos. But
Moss has 49 catches for 712 yards and five touchdowns and Brady
is sixth in the league with 2,364 yards passing and tied for
third with 16 touchdown passes.
Coach Bill Belichick wasn't surprised to see them work so well
together again.
"We had almost 50 practices in preseason. That's not counting
all the spring," he said. "Those guys work hard. They are very
talented players."
Patriots linebacker Tully Banta-Cain missed the Brady-Moss debut
season when he signed with San Francisco after four years with
New England. He returned after being released in February.
With the 49ers, he heard a lot about two other combinations -
Steve Young to Jerry Rice (second with 85 touchdowns) and Joe
Montana to Rice (tied for ninth with 55).
"Everybody there is still kind of living in that era. That was a
high standard that those guys set," Banta-Cain said, but "you
say Tom Brady and Randy Moss in the same sentence, you're
expecting good things to happen and that's been the case."
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