Randy Moss has backing of Belichick, teammates

FOXBOROUGH - Randy Moss wasn’t in the Patriots’ locker room yesterday. He watched parts of Sunday’s 20-10 victory over Carolina by himself on the bench, his paltry statistics buried on the stat sheet and Panthers cornerbacks Chris Harris and Chris Gamble burying him after the game. Yesterday, Moss’s teammates and coach came to his defense.

“I have a lot of respect for Randy,’’ Bill Belichick said. “I think he’s one of our best players. I think if you watch other teams defend him, they think the same way. Other than these two guys from Carolina after they lost another game, I guess they didn’t think that way. They haven’t won a lot of games.’’

For the second time this season, Moss was held to just one catch. He was targeted four times on Sunday: two passes were dropped, one was caught for 16 yards but then fumbled, and another was intercepted.

“We knew he was going to shut it down,’’ Gamble said Sunday. “He’d just give up a lot - slow down, he’s not going deep, not trying to run a route. You can tell [by his] body language. I know everyone who plays against him, they can sense that. Once you get him in the beginning of the game, he shuts it down a little bit.’’

When opponents get physical with Moss, Harris said after the game, the result is predictable.

“That’s what it is with him,’’ Harris said. “You get physical with him, and I don’t want to say he quits, but he kind of doesn’t run the routes the way they’re supposed to be run. If you get a jam on him, he’ll just ease up.’’

The scathing comments continued. Cris Carter, Moss’s former teammate in Minnesota, called the performance “pathetic.’’

“For me, as someone who teaches wide receivers how to be wide receivers and how to run routes and what type of effort and stuff it would take, it was pathetic, and I was shocked,’’ Carter said on ESPN Radio. “Because I know it’s in him, but I thought he had matured to the point where I wasn’t going to see it anymore.’’

But for those who wanted to attack Moss’s performance, there were those who defended him.

Former Patriot Tedy Bruschi, who played with Moss in 2007 and 2008, had nothing but praise for Moss as a teammate.

“There is a difference between frustration and someone quitting on a team,’’ said Bruschi, who is an ESPN analyst. “I can speak only from the experience of being a teammate of Randy Moss - he is the type of player I want to be my teammate, and I’m proud to say I was a teammate of Moss. He works hard, and he only wants to win. Yes, he got frustrated Sunday. You’ve seen frustration on every player’s face before, but I think everyone looks a bit closer at Moss because of his history. As his teammate, I saw nothing but hard work and dedication from him.’