New England Patriots Links 12/16/09 - Adalius Thomas Gets a Good Wrap

Adalius Thomas earned points with Robert Kraft and especially the kids, who adorned he and defensive lineman Titus Adams in gift wrap as part of the "Wrap-a-Pat" portion of the evening.  Great photos of the event here.

"It was a little crazy being wrapped up with Titus.  He's a little claustrophobic.  I'm a little claustrophobic.  I found out he's a lot more claustrophobic than I am,"  Thomas said earlier this evening.  "But it was very interesting to see the kids do that.  I don't know how much paper it was but that was a lot of paper.  I could have used some of that.  I need to wrap some gifts when I get home."

"Any time when it's about the kids, nothing else really matters.  It's a game that we're playing,"  Thomas said.  "That's truly what it is.  But these kids are dealing with the game of life, which is a lot more important than football.  You come out here, you try to put a smile on their faces, and hopefully they forget about any problems they may have or anything they may be going through.  So if you can come out and lend a hand, spend a piece of your day and give them something to remember for a lifetime, I think that's a great trade-off."

Bill Belichick talks up Bills' WR Terrell Owens and if he's still the same threat he's been in the past.

Well, yeah.  Ask Jacksonville, ask Miami. He does a great job on the vertical deep routes. He's obviously big and fast and he can go up and get the ball. But he's also very good on the underneath routes, like what happened last week on a catch-and-run play where he caught the ball underneath, broke a couple tackles, and got the ball in the end zone. He's dangerous. He made a nice play there against Kansas City, but he's also made nice plays down the field. They try to get him the ball underneath. They did that against us in the first game for a 20-something-yard gain, whatever it was.

So he's a guy that can hurt you in a lot of different ways - deep, intermediate, run after the catch. He had a real nice play that got called back against Miami. He had a real nice play where he took a reverse and they had him in the backfield for about a 10-yard loss, and he ended up gaining about 10, 12 yards on the play and broke three or four tackles along the way. I think he's still got plenty of skill.

TEAM TALK

• New England Patriots at Buffalo Bills - Broadcast info, series history, team connections and more.
• Ask PFW: What's up with A.D., Moss?
• Tuesday Conference Calls: Bill Belichick (13:19 min.), Dean Pees (9:09 min.), Nick Caserio (7:52 min.).  Plus Transcripts.
• Patriots Today: Run game, playoff picture and more. (11:35 min video)

LOCAL LINKS

• Mark Farinella employs a lonely voice of reason regarding the press and its biased treatment of Randy Moss.  Plenty of players have bad games without getting crucified, including Matt "turnstyle" Light and Tom "Channing Crowder isn't a Patriot?" Brady.  But Moss is never allowed the luxury of a bad game or a slump without the old story lines resurfacing.
• Chris Gasper catches up with former Patriot WR Troy Brown, who weighs in on Moss and Thomas.  Brown believes Moss has too much respect for Tom Brady and Bill Belichick to dog it.
  
• Mike Reiss offers ten things to know about the Bills.
• Karen Guregian looks for Brady to go to Moss early against the Bills, even though Buffalo has the NFL’s worst-ranked defense against the run.
• Albert Breer sees the Patriots shifting to a running game.
• Chris Gasper asserts Wes Welker is the MVP of the 2009 Patriots.
• Adam Kilgore looks at the fan portion of the Pro-Bowl voting and notes some of its silliness.
• Jeff Howe says winning doesn't cure everything, but a win over Buffalo on Sunday might.
• Mike Reiss reports Jarvis Green has seen a heavy workload after missing three games following knee surgery.  His four tackles and one sack earned him a game ball Sunday.
• Albert Breer offers his final thoughts on the week that was.
• Christopher Price answers his weekly reader mailbag, with Randy Moss and Adalius Thomas topping the list.  Price believes Moss has too much respect for Tom Brady to dog it and thinks the WR is hurting.
• Mike Reiss answers his weekly reader mailbag overflowing with questions, comments and concerns regarding the Patriots eventful week.
• Mike Reiss notes Greg Gumbel (play-by-play) and Dan Dierdorf (analysis) will call Sunday's game between the Patriots and Bills, which is the 100th in the series between the teams.
• Ron Borges issues his week 14 Report Card, granting a top grade to Welker and not much else.
• Steve DeOssie issues his week 14 Report Card, saying it's a good thing they were playing Carolina.
• Boston Herald Patriots Notebook: Robert Kraft provided some kind words for both Adalius Thomas and Randy Moss at yesterday's Salvation Army/Patriots holiday party at Gillette Stadium; James Sanders shared the team lead with seven tackles Sunday; Belichick sung the praises of T.O., whose team the Pats will be facing this week; Nick Caserio believes Laurence Maroney is evolving into the type of running back the team envisioned when it drafted him in 2006.

NATIONAL NEWS

• NFL Network The Coaches: Belichick defends Randy Moss.  (3:39 min. video) Mike Martz and Steve Mariucci defend Bill Belichick's defense of Randy Moss.  Nice.
• Allen Wilson (Buffalo News) Patriots' commitment called into question.
• Nolan Nawrocki (Pro Football Weekly) Moss' effort reflects bigger Patriots problem.
• Jeremy Lundblad (ESPN Stats & Information) Statistical guide to the New England Patriots' problems.
• Allen Wilson and Ian Rapoport (Sporting News) Patriots vs. Bills Preview.
• Rodney McKissic (Buffalo News) Bills' rookie safety Jairus Byrd has nine interceptions for the season.
• Don Banks (SI) Draft redux: Re-projecting the 2009 first round Draftt based on season-to-date performances.