McGinest enjoyed visit - to a point

Former Patriot Willie McGinest may wear No. 55 in brown and orange these days, but he hasn't forgotten his old friends.

"This one's for Tedy [Bruschi]," he said as he sat in the visitors' locker room, signing the back of his much more familiar No. 55 Patriots jersey after yesterday's 34-17 loss to the Patriots. "You don't forget."

McGinest, who played in four Super Bowls during his time with the Patriots (1994-2005), received a nice ovation from the Gillette Stadium crowd in his return to the scene of his prime, and while it may not have been a triumphant homecoming, the 35-year-old linebacker appreciated the sentiment.

"Who wants to come back to a whupping?" he said. "But it's good to come back and see old faces. I just wish that we would have played better. This is a great crowd. I had a lot of years here with them. We went through a lot together. I just take my hat off to them. I really appreciated the standing ovation. It was tough to focus with all of that going on."

And McGinest was more than suitably impressed with his former team. "They have a lot of weapons," said McGinest, who signed with Cleveland to play for his former defensive coordinator in New England, Romeo Crennel, in March 2006. "They have a lot of playmakers. You take one away and others show up. You can't gameplan for one guy. They're doing their thing. I think they're the best team in the NFL. You use it as a measuring stick for yourself."

McGinest spent many a film session in New England trying to break down the Indianapolis juggernaut, and asked if his old team now has as many weapons as Peyton Manning & Co., he said, "They might have more than the Colts. You put those weapons around a guy like [Tom] Brady, then there is nothing left to talk about. I have nothing but respect for them."

And what was it like for Brady to see the old/new No. 55 across the line of scrimmage? "He's a great player, a real leader for that defense," Brady said. "I hate to see him in another jersey. He's a Patriot as far as I'm concerned."

Scott Thurston