The Little Things He Does Power Patriots

At 5 feet 10, Troy Brown is so short that the No. 80 on his New England Patriot jersey seems to occupy three-fourths of his torso. Or maybe that 80 stands out because it always seems to be in the middle of the Patriots’ big plays.

He isn’t a big talker, but his quiet voice stood out in the silenced city of Pittsburgh after the Patriots threw salt on the Steelers’ Super Bowl hopes with a 24-17 victory at Heinz Field on Sunday.

Brown was explaining a motto he shares with other members of the improbable AFC champion Patriots: Do what you do.

“Kevin Faulk [a former teammate] started saying it to me,” Brown said. “It caught on with everybody else. That’s what we’ve been doing. Call us what you want to call us, we’re just going to do what we do.”

Among the things Brown did Sunday:

* Return a punt 55 yards straight up the middle of the field for the game’s first touchdown.

* Scoop up a blocked Pittsburgh field goal attempt and hustle 11 yards before tossing the ball to Antwan Harris, who ran 49 yards into the end zone.

* Get the step on his man to haul in a Drew Bledsoe pass on third and 11, when the Patriots were back in their own territory and needed to keep the chains and the clock moving.

“He’s the MVP of our team,” Patriot safety Lawyer Milloy said. “He’s what made our team go. As long as we have him back there, we always have a chance to score points. That’s just what we believe. When you see guys making that extra block, that extra effort, it’s because that’s the type of player he is.”

Yes, the Patriots made it to the playoffs because they had an unexpectedly strong backup quarterback in Tom Brady when Bledsoe went out with an injury. And they took the final step to the Super Bowl because they had a player of Bledsoe’s caliber to send in when Brady was hurt in the first half of the AFC championship game.

But Brown is the man who kept the Patriots from missing a beat during the suspended/unsuspended/active/ injured(?)/inactive/suspended saga of wide receiver Terry Glenn.

Brown caught a team-record 101 passes this season for 1,199 yards and five touchdowns. He was the league’s top punt returner, averaging 14.2 yards per runback, including touchdown returns of 85 yards and 68 yards.

If there’s one question the Patriots won’t mind hearing again and again this week, it’s anything related to Brown. They love talking about the guy. They’ll even go out of their way to talk about him.

When someone asked Bledsoe about the lift provided by two special teams touchdowns Sunday, he said: “Thank you for the question, because it leads me to Troy Brown.

“I’m telling ya, if there’s a more valuable player to his team in the league than Troy Brown, I don’t know who it is. Without Troy Brown, I don’t know what our record would be this year. But we certainly wouldn’t be standing where we are right now. He’s by far the most valuable player on our team.”

Even dour Coach Bill Belichick brightens when he hears Brown’s name.

“Oh man, that guy is some football player,” Belichick said. “He does the big things, but he does all the little things. He does all the unsung kind of things that make you appreciate him as a football player. As a coach, you just love to have guys like that on your team.

“He returns kicks, blocks kicks, blocks on running plays, we count on him for third-down [receptions] ... he’s just a terrific football player. He puts the team first. I think that’s a great model and example that he sets for our younger players, because he is so team-oriented. A lot of things come his way because of the hard work and determination.”

A career in the NFL wasn’t a given for Brown, an eighth-round draft pick from Marshall in 1993. He was a return specialist his first season and was cut during preseason the next year, then signed back later in the year. He didn’t start a game at receiver until last season.

That’s one reason you can still find him on the kick-block unit, an unlikely place for a player who earned a spot in the Pro Bowl this year.

“You don’t forget where you come from,” Brown said. “That’s what kept me on the team.

“Special teams just kept me around a long time, and it’s something I’ve always been good at. And I always feel like if you’ve got a player that’s good on special teams, you’ve got to have him on the field. Find a way to get him on the field and help your team win games.”

Brown didn’t get to play in New England’s last trip to the Super Bowl five years ago because he had a hernia.

If I’m Belichick, I’m finding a way to get Brown on the field as much as possible this Sunday. Nickel defense. Punt unit. Coin toss.

Good things seem to happen for the Patriots whenever Brown does what he does.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at ja.adande@latimes.com