Raiders Have the Flashy Plays, but Patriots Have the 30-20 Win

Three Super Bowl trophies adorn the covers of their media guides, but that’s where the New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders part ways.

Whereas the Raiders are loaded with personalities -- Randy Moss, Warren Sapp and Charles Woodson among others -- the Patriots are blander than Bill Belichick’s wardrobe.

Unlike the Raiders, who revel in their storied past and collected their last Super Bowl victory 21 years ago, Team Dynasty doesn’t glance back for a moment. Belichick treats “three-peat” like a four-letter word.

In the NFL opener Thursday, one major difference stood out above the others: The Raiders made the eye-catching plays, but the Patriots made the spirit-crushing ones.

Overcoming a long touchdown reception by Moss and a blocked kick and punt, the Patriots took their first step toward an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl crown with a 30-20 victory at Gillette Stadium.

They also denied the Raiders any measure of revenge for their snowy playoff loss here four years ago. That controversial classic, remembered as the “Snow Bowl” in Boston and the “Snow Job” in Oakland, was the last game played in the Patriots’ old stadium, which is now the parking lot for the new one.

In a way, it was the game that launched a dynasty. It’s also the defeat the Raiders have spent the past four years trying to live down. The Patriots, meanwhile, seem to have scrubbed clean the memory of their recent Super Bowl spree. Asked this week about the prospects of a three-peat, quarterback Tom Brady countered: “I’m hoping to put together three good days of practice.”

False modesty? Not so fast. Yes, Brady is 49-14 as a starter in the regular season and an unmatched 9-0 in the postseason. But the Patriots truly didn’t know what they had until their opener. Their offensive and defensive coordinators left after last season, taking jobs as head coaches at Notre Dame and in Cleveland, respectively. And during the off-season they lost two of their top defensive players, linebackers Tedy Bruschi and Ted Johnson.

So with a defensive guru calling the offensive plays and Brady retaining veto power at the line of scrimmage, the Patriots began their march toward history. It wasn’t always pretty; Belichick described it as “stumbling along.” But it got the job done.

Brady completed 24 of 38 passes for 306 yards with two touchdowns.

The defense wasn’t quite as smooth.

“We weren’t up to par,” New England safety Rodney Harrison said. “Similar to [our opener] last year, we played rusty. We didn’t play a complete game. We gave up some easy touchdowns, didn’t really communicate well.”

Harrison was the last line of defense in the second quarter on a spectacular touchdown by Moss, who tipped the ball away from cornerback Tyrone Poole at the 50, caught his own deflection, then juked Harrison on the way to a 73-yard score.

“He’s the best receiver in the league,” Harrison said with a shrug. “He’s 6-4, can run like a deer, can jump like Kobe Bryant. He’s Randy Moss.”

The Patriots recovered, though, limiting Moss to three more catches for a total of five and relegating him to the highlight reel, nothing more. Belichick made a slick move in the second quarter, switching from a 3-4 defense to a 4-3. That ratcheted up the pressure on quarterback Kerry Collins and helped put the clamps on running back LaMont Jordan.

The Raiders nearly matched New England in total yards, 351 to 379, but they converted just 31 percent of their third downs (four of 13) and would have been shut out in the second half but for great field position off a blocked punt.

“We’re considered a high-powered offense,” Jordan said. “Last time I checked, high-powered offenses don’t get held to [20] points.”

Jordan led all rushers with 18 carries for 70 yards, all but 22 coming in the first half. The main reason for the drop off: The Raiders were playing catch-up in the second half, so they weren’t running.

But the switch to the 4-3 helped, too.

“That’s always been a strength of this coaching staff and this team,” linebacker Mike Vrabel said of the Patriots adjusting on the fly. “We can go over to the sidelines and make changes in just a few minutes.”

The Patriots appeared to put the game out of reach around the midway point of the fourth quarter, building a 30-14 lead on Corey Dillon’s second touchdown run.

But the Raiders made a game of it down the stretch, blocking a punt to set up a late touchdown drive that cut the lead to 10. That proved to be merely cosmetic, however, for a team that had nine penalties in the fourth quarter, seven of which were accepted.

“Penalties killed us,” Sapp said. “We pretty much handed it to them. Until then, we had a pretty good game going.”