That is the falicy of Weis. In 2003, the offense didn't make adjustments other than getting three and outs so the defense could make turnovers. Look at some of the wins. The defense won games like vs. Dallas (12-0) or the Miami snow fireworks game (Bruschi scored the only TD of the game again in a 12-0 win). Weis' brilliant call of a FB draw on third and long cost the Pats the chance to win vs. Washington that year. Weis became a genius when he had talent.
In 2004, Weis has arguably the best QB and RB in the league. You can argue the talent of the 2004 offense was as good or better than the talent of 2007. No he didn't have Moss, but he had Dillon who rushed more per game played than any RB that year. He had Branch, Givens, Faulk, Graham, and Patten as receivers. Talent-wise, I will put the 2004 offense up against the 2007 offense. No one ever dismisses Weis' year because he had elite talent eventhough the year before the offense was the worst offense of the Brady era.
I do agree that all McDaniels did was get the offense to score a lot of points and get a lot of yards which gave the Pats a great margin of victory. Big deal! Tell me how many games are you going to win by scoring more points than the other team? Maybe one or two a season.
Besides, McDaniels adjustments and strategies were severely underrated by the fans because apparently his biggest crime was being a great OC not named Charlie Weis. Look at the Jacksonville playoff game where Brady broke a playoff record because McDaniels totally changed the offense because the Jags tried to take away what the Pats did best that season. Or the year before against Minnesota when he changed everything because of the Vikes defense.
Seriously, I don't know why people don't want to give McDaniels his due. The guy was an excellent OC who coached the best offense of all time and then followed it up by defying the odds and fielded the 5th ranked offense (8th in points scored) without Brady and with a QB who made his first start since high school (BTW, Cassel was on the 28th ranked offense this year). We have seen this year that Moss, Welker, and Brady can't make this a great consistent offense who could close games without McDaniels. And this was before Brady's injuries.