Trust a Part of Patriots’ Success

Today’s question is whether Bill Belichick, the meticulous coach of the unbeaten New England Patriots, can keep his two winning streaks going against the AFC’s other surprise team, the unbeaten New York Jets.

In winning No. 20 in succession to go 5-0 this season, Belichick set down Seattle last Sunday, 30-20, by putting all his trust in two men -- quarterback Tom Brady and himself.

First he relied on Brady’s passing to open a halftime lead of 20-3.

Then, permitting Brady to throw only twice in the third quarter, Belichick put the Patriots in running-play mode, relying on his defense.

Finally, after the Seahawks had closed to 23-20 in the last three minutes, Belichick turned to Brady again, who threw the day’s only bomb to sophomore wide receiver Bethel Johnson, which set up the last touchdown.

Anatomy of a Bomb

Here’s how Belichick wins 20 in a row. With three minutes left:

* It was third and eight at the Patriot 39 -- where most of Belichick’s conservative peers would have called another run and then told the defense to hang onto the three-point lead. The Patriots instead called time and reviewed a play they had been thinking about but hadn’t used all day.

* It had to be a bomb because of the down and distance. On third and eight, an eight-yard pass can be stopped. The Seattle cornerbacks can simply level out at about eight yards.

* Brady couldn’t spend a lot of time standing around in the pocket as the pass rush gathered. So the Patriots had to roll him out a few yards and reset him away from the rush while the play developed far downfield.

* Most of all, the Patriots had to have a quarterback with the head to feign a shorter throw and the arm to hit a big one. That’s Brady.

* They also needed a receiver who could go get it. That’s Johnson, a second-round draft choice last year from Texas A&M.; A 5-foot-11sprinter, Johnson, as he sailed through the air, didn’t look near enough to the ball to reach it. While airborne, though, he stretched just far enough to put his fingers on Brady’s speeding bullet.

The hardest part was hanging onto the ball as Johnson hit the ground with his stable left arm clearly under it.

To win 20 you need some luck, but it’s more than luck.

Patriots’ Strategy

The Patriots win or save more games with big fourth-quarter plays than any of their opponents. On a Belichick team, a big play at the end isn’t happenstance.

Patriot strategy is obviously thought out in depth.

For instance, after Brady’s passes had taken New England to 17-0 in last Sunday’s first 17 minutes, he was grounded in the third quarter, when his only two passes were unimportant and unproductive.

Brady’s first-half passing set up Corey Dillon’s runs for the Patriots, and in the third quarter Dillon took over.

That wasn’t happenstance either. Sometimes it’s sound strategy for a good passing team to dominate the first half with aggressive pass plays and then run to hold the lead in the second half.

The Runnin’ Rams

The St. Louis Rams had to rely on Tampa Bay fumbles to win a 28-21 decision Monday night from a 1-5 team they would have creamed if Coach Mike Martz’s play-calling matched his brilliance as a pass-play designer.

Known as a passing team, the Rams struggled because they didn’t throw often enough and Martz kept trying to make them run on running downs against run defenses.

On the goal line, any down is a running down. Any third and short is a running down. Any first and 10 is a running down.

And that’s where Martz has been running the ball all season, to the detriment of the Rams -- usually against 8-3 defenses with eight defensive players on or near the line of scrimmage and only three in the secondary.

That was Tampa’s defensive configuration most of Monday night when, on first-down runs, two good Ram running backs, Marshall Faulk and Steven Jackson, kept bumping their heads on Buccaneers.

Archuleta’s Night

The Rams overwhelmed the Buccaneers at all the key offensive positions. Tampa Bay Coach Jon Gruden had lost most of his wide receivers and his fastest running backs, among others.

And his team was directed by its third-string quarterback, the well-traveled Brian Griese.

Yet Griese outplayed St. Louis quarterback Marc Bulger, who repeatedly found it difficult to extricate himself from the tough passing situations in which he was placed.

The individual brilliance of double-covered wide receiver Torry Holt got the Rams two big touchdowns, but they won only by prevailing in the decisive freak circumstances of the game.

First, after the Buccaneers fumbled on their own five-yard line, the Rams scored in four plays -- all runs averaging a little more than a yard apiece.

Next, Tampa Bay fumbled at the Ram goal line, where Ram safety Adam Archuleta tackled running back Michael Pittman, who had caught Griese’s good pass, and in the confusion only Archuleta saw the fumble.

He picked it up at the seven-yard line and ran it all the way the other way.

Rookie of the Year

The Pittsburgh Steelers (5-1) continue to lead the AFC North with their undefeated (4-0) rookie-of-the-year quarterback, Big Ben Roethlisberger, who got his first taste of luck Sunday when Dallas fumbled the game away, 24-20.

Roethlisberger still had to drive the ball home after Cowboy quarterback Vinny Testaverde, when sacked, dropped it.

After taking over at the Dallas 24, the kid quarterback, performing with uncanny agility for his size (6-5, 242), moved the Steelers to the winning points, playing more like a featherweight than a super-heavyweight.

Roethlisberger comes by his athleticism honestly. He was a shortstop at Miami of Ohio. In fact, he was the captain of the baseball team, as well as the basketball team -- and of course the football team.

As the most interesting new player of the NFL season -- he’d be in his senior season if he had stayed at Miami -- Roethlisberger appears to be doing everything any other starting pro quarterback can do. And, he can move, which some of the good passers can’t. On one memorable play Sunday, rushed from the pocket, he stepped nimbly out of harm’s way and put a touchdown pass on target.

Holmgren’s Challenge

The Seattle question now is whether Coach Mike Holmgren will be able to regroup his very good team at Arizona after two consecutive psychologically unsettling defeats to St. Louis and New England.

The most unenviable coaching job in pro football now belongs to Holmgren, who has the offense and defense to be 5-0. What’s more, he could -- and should -- be looking confidently ahead, now that he has the right quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck, and the right defensive coach, Ray Rhodes.

But what if the team is still shell-shocked?