Force wasn't with Brady and Moss here

FOXBOROUGH - Tom Brady and Randy Moss have established an instant connection this season, but they had a harder time than usual connecting Sunday in the Patriots' 20-10 win over the New York Jets.

Brady, who was 14 of 27 for 140 yards passing, threw the ball in Moss's direction 13 times, including a play in which illegal defensive contact was called and an attempt was not credited. Moss finished with five catches for 79 yards. On New England's first two drives, eight of Brady's first 10 passes were sent in Moss's direction, with four completed for 33 yards.

The pass that Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis intercepted in the third quarter also was intended for Moss, who caught a 46-yard deep ball from Brady in the fourth quarter.

Yesterday, in his weekly interview with WEEI radio, Brady admitted sometimes he's guilty of locking in on Moss because he believes he'll come down with the ball.

"Yeah, no question," he said. "The problem is you get spoiled because sometimes you just throw it up like in Miami and he does make the catches and everybody goes, 'Great play, great read.' Where you're like, 'Not really.' You get definitely a safety blanket when you have him on the field, and I go to him quite a bit. I go to Wes [Welker] and I go to Donte' [Stallworth]."

Brady said his receiving group is unselfish and individuals don't complain about not getting the ball thrown their way.

"We're in a good situation in that it's a very selfless group, and I think 99 percent of the time I go to where the coverage dictates," he said in the radio interview.

Moss's five grabs put him at 87 for the season, and he picked up another $350,000 bonus for surpassing the 85-catch mark. Moss had $350,000 bonuses in his reworked contract for 45, 55, 65, 75, and 85 catches. He gets another $250,000 if he's voted to the Pro Bowl, which will be announced today.

Seeing improvement

A week after saying he wasn't playing at 100 percent, defensive end Richard Seymour had his best game of the season Sunday, collecting a half-sack, three quarterback hits, a deflected pass, and pressuring Kellen Clemens into an interception that Eugene Wilson returned for a 5-yard touchdown on the Jets' first possession.

Seymour was on the physically unable to perform list for all of training camp and the first seven games of the season following offseason knee surgery.

"It's a gradual process," said coach Bill Belichick. "Richard's worked hard. You all know what kind of player Richard is, and he's gotten progressively more reps as the season has gone on, from his first few weeks back. I think that accumulation of practice time and timing and game reps and conditioning and different situations playing against different types of players, different types of offenses and those kinds of things, that's what rounds every player into playing shape.

"Practice is good, but it's not the same as games. I think all of those reps, practice, and games cumulatively have helped him, and that's probably really the way it should be."

Doing his part

Belichick said the Patriots were ready for the option look the Jets used with wide receiver Brad Smith at quarterback; veteran Troy Brown had played Smith on the New England scout team. Save for the first time the Jets used the option and Smith pitched it to Leon Washington, who ran for 49 yards, the Patriots contained the gimmick. "Troy was Brad this week, as a receiver and as quarterback, and he had the different roles that Brad played in, so that was Troy," said Belichick. "We worked on that. We didn't play the first one very well on the pitch. They kind of split us on that. We just didn't play it very well, but I thought overall we did a pretty good job on that." . . . Three times in the first quarter, Brady ran awkward quarterback keepers. After the game Laurence Maroney said he missed a couple of audibles. "It was a miscommunication on a couple of them," said Maroney, who said he didn't hear Brady. However, Brady and Belichick yesterday only cited two cases and said one wasn't Maroney's fault, as Brady pulled the handoff away from Maroney on the first such play, on New England's first possession, because the Jets had an unblocked blitzer off the edge. Belichick called that a smart decision.

Credit to Crennel

Belichick said he's happy to see former Patriots assistant Romeo Crennel on the verge of getting the Cleveland Browns into the postseason, after enduring a 4-12 season last year. Cleveland (9-5) can clinch a playoff spot with a win at Cincinnati Sunday. "I've talked to Romeo several times," said Belichick. "As I said last year, I think he's done a good job there. The record doesn't always reflect the progress of the team, and I think that was probably the case last year. I know the fans and media don't always want to hear that, but I think when you look at it objectively and really try to analyze a team you can see that. When we played them earlier this year, I thought that was a good football team. I said that at the time and they are." . . . The Patriots continued their climb up the red zone rankings after holding the Jets to no touchdowns in four chances Sunday. New England moved from 31st to 25th in the league in red zone defense, having allowed 20 touchdowns in 35 red zone chances (57.1 percent) . . . The Patriots tied their season high with five sacks against the Jets. They also recorded five against New York in a 38-14 win Sept. 9 . . . Brady's completion percentage dipped below 70 percent (69.2). Brady had a 74 percent completion rate for the season after 10 games, which would have bested Ken Anderson's NFL record of 70.55 percent set in 1982, a strike year that featured a nine-game regular season.