He's wired in, without barbs

But Belichick is a smart man who learns from his mistakes the few times he makes them, and he learned in Cleveland that a stupid question does not always require an equally inane response. So when someone asked him yesterday about his thoughts on his team being one of the "dominant" ones in the NFL, he took a deep breath, waited a moment, then succinctly educated the media on such matters.

"The ball is inside the 1-yard line on the last play of the game," said Belichick. "Who is dominating who?" He didn't have to urge the questioner to pursue another line of reasoning or another line of work. He didn't have to upbraid him, browbeat him, or ask him if he'd actually watched Sunday's 38-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Three sentences and the thought of using such a word to describe his 10-2 Patriots had been dismissed without anyone having to be dissed. That is called growing in the job.

Belichick's point was well taken. The idea of "dominance" being associated with a team that needed a goal line stand to win a game it once led by 21 points had been politely defused.

Belichick didn't have to pull a Jim Mora, whose legendary breakdown two years ago after a loss cost him his job as Colts coach. He simply pointed out, with perfect understatement, that "dominant" is not a word that goes with any NFL team this season.

Are the 10-2 Patriots dominant when they are life-and-death with the Houston Texans? Are the Tennessee Titans dominant when they barely escape being beaten by Jacksonville and Atlanta then lose to the Jets? Are the 11-1 Kansas City Chiefs dominant when their undefeated streak is snapped by the Bengals and they barely beat the Raiders and Chargers?

Let's try the NFC. Maybe you think the 9-3 Rams are dominant after Sunday's pounding of the NFC North-leading Minnesota Vikings. Then how do they end up in overtime against the Cardinals and only a 2-point winner over the Bears the week before that?

Surely the Eagles are now dominant after winning seven straight and nine of their last 10. If that's the case, how do they barely beat both of the certifiably awful New York franchises, the Jets and Giants? In fact, if John Kasay doesn't miss three field goals Sunday while his counterpart, David Akers, is making four, they don't beat the Carolina Panthers, who are good but not dominant themselves.

Dominant? If there is one thing that is sure this season, it is that nobody is dominating anybody in the NFL, which is why this Sunday's late-afternoon confrontation with the sure-to-be-shivering Miami Dolphins should be another difficult pull for the Patriots.

Every time they have been faced with such a game, they have managed to find a way to win it, and that speaks well of them. But what does it say about their future? Does finding ways to win close games make the next such game easier?

Patriot Nation would like to have heard Belichick say the answer was yes, but he knows better. Being successful in close games and coming up big, as the Patriots did on the goal line in Indianapolis, certainly gives a team confidence, but walking on the razor's edge usually leads to one thing: razor cuts.

"If we go out and play the game the way we want to play it -- on our terms -- we're confident we can play with anybody," Belichick said. "Yesterday I never felt either team had control of the game. There were a lot of good plays more than there were a lot of bad plays.

"Good football teams win close games. If you play appropriately in the situation, you have a lot better chance of winning. That's what we try to do. I think our team has confidence in themselves and their teammates. That's good. But there's no telling how the next one will turn out."

As the questions kept coming, some questioners edged ever closer to the abyss of overstatement until someone finally tumbled into it head-first, asking how the coach might combat the very human thought by his players that they "can walk on water" after so many close victories this season.

He looked at his questioner as if he were considering whether a CAT scan should be ordered before smiling and saying, "If they just watch themselves play, they'll be easily convinced they can't walk on water. Easily. They've all given up their share of plays and they know it. There's room for improvement. A lot of room for improvement."

Many might dispute that, arguing that, at 10-2, how much more can you ask for? That would be either the fan, the media, or the untutored mind (which is often the same thing) speaking, and Belichick understands that. Although such questions still irk him, he seems to realize now that they are seldom mean-spirited. They are simply conclusions arrived at by people who are either utterly addled, haven't been around long enough to know better, or don't really understand that the difference between 10-2 and 8-4 and 6-6 and 4-8 isn't much wider than the edge of a good Wilkinson sword.

"Credit has to go to the players," Belichick said. "They're the ones making the plays. Those guys are making big plays in key situations. Good players make big plays in big games. Fortunately, we have a number of them."

Enough of them to be 10-2. Enough to be one game away from having the best record in football. Enough to be on the edge of winning home-field advantage in the playoffs and a bye in the first round.

Enough to be many things, but not one thing. In this day and age in the NFL, not even being 10-2 makes you dominant. It just makes you very good, which may just be good enough this season to play football for a good long time.