Kevin Faulk and Tom Brady are trying to keep Moss from shutting it down
completely. The Patriots have no chance the last three games if Moss
plays like he did yesterday.
That's exactly what the situation is IMO. And it's almost painful to listen to Tom trying to tapdance around the situation on the radio this AM. He genuinely likes Randy his friend and unabashedly admires Randy the talent.
If you listen closely he isn't absolving or denying anything, more trying to explain and rationalize or make allowances for things as an end around tough questions. His mantra remains you have to fight through adversity. And he just kind of closed his comments on the topic with the observation injuries are excuses for poor performance and he cannot accept that because there are all manner of obstacles to winning, weather, opponents resolve, and you win when you overcome them by being mentally tough.
Between Chris Gamble's and Art Shell's comments, I'd say Moss has a known psychological imperfection that really came to the fore.
But he's been a highly productive player despite it for years, and most likely will be soon again.
I think that is what his teamates are hoping, but that hasn't always been the case - at least the soon enough part. What Art Shell said about Moss according to Borges, who is if nothing a student of all things Oakland, is that Moss is easily "daunted". What Dungy said yesterday in defending him against allegations that he was again quitting is that he is "fragile". Rodney didn't disagree. I believe that is the crux of the problem in a nutshell. He is fragile both physically and mentally. And as a result he is easily daunted. He's not a bad guy in the classic sense and he is an all world level talent, and that is why Brady and Belichick and others have continued to have his back here. Unfortunately this is not a league that adapts well to accomodating weakness. It is often overlooked or tolerated in the most talented, kiss of death in the less talented. He's an odd fit for a team that won championships with a lot of guys like Welker, who are less talented but simply determined to do whatever it takes to win including will themselves to if that's all they can hope to.
I think a lot of things are daunting Moss this season. My observations on the way he moves and uses his body compared to the way he once did have fallen mostly on deaf ears. Any criticism of Randy is kneejerk characterized as unfair criticism. He clearly isn't the same player who was wildly successful in his first 10-12 weeks here. Whether that is due to injury per se or a chronic problem potentially age related is anyone's guess. He plays like a guy with a stiff back. Doesn't bend or jump or cut well. Doesn't fight off blockers or get off jams with any burst. He still has straight line speed when he flashes it in the open. Whether he's protecting himself or genuinely cannot do more than he does is anyone's guess. The result is the same. Daunting.
That they feel they have to continue to try and involve him in games potentially to their detriment of is a byproduct of both his top tier contract status and the lack of sufficiently viable alternate options. Everyone has taken a hit for him, his HOF QB gets admonished for becoming myopic or careless over him, his coordinators get eviscerated for alternately not calling better plays for him or not getting away from him, other players get under or over or improperly utilized in an effort to work around his unavailability or create opportunities for him. That is physically as well as mentally draining for them. As is the process of supporting his fragile ego. They have their own performances to worry about.
I just don't know how long you can keep doing all that when the results aren't what you bargained for. The ends aren't justifying the means. Brady needs better receivers and more options to optimize his talents. That's been the case for a while now, even before the merely physically fragile twig departed. He doesn't have the time to wait for receivers to get open absent the kind of success he experienced in the first twelve weeks of 2007 without risking losing his own career to cumulative injury in the process. And the team is risking everyone else's career on this roster in the process as well. If the process continues to ultimately fail in part because of an unfortunate flaw in an inigmatic however other worldly talent, that would be truly tragic.
