Meet Welker and Moss, Pats' Butch and Sundance

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If Randy Moss is Butch Cassidy, then Wes Welker is the Sundance Kid. Although Moss spent last season suffering in Oakland, while Welker was toiling in Miami, now that the two wide receivers are thoroughly enjoying life together in New England, it's hard to imagine one without the other. They complement each other perfectly. While each is an outstanding player in his own right, neither would be putting up quite the same, dazzling numbers without the other. Moss is, without question, the better of the two. He's the star, the main man, the biggest difference-maker on this year's undefeated Patriots team from last year's, which, even with a mediocre corps of receivers, came within a few, frustrating minutes of going to the Super Bowl. This season, the Patriots' receiving corps -- headed by Moss and Welker -- is nothing short of sensational. Moss is everything you'd want in a receiver -- tall (6-foot-4), strong (210 sinewy pounds), fast (4.4 speed), with long arms and huge hands. As for Welker, well, he's short -- 5-foot-9, on tiptoes -- and is quick, rather than fast. Which explains why Texas Tech was the only Division I school to offer him a scholarship, even though he'd been the Oklahoma high school Player of the Year, and why he went undrafted in 2004, even though he had set NCAA records as a punt returner for both career yards (1,761) and touchdowns (8.) Where Moss is scary, Welker is pesky. Moss is a dangerous deep threat. He set an NFL record this season with 23 touchdown catches, and has nine receptions for 40 or more yards. Welker set a Patriots record this season with 112 catches -- smashing the previous mark of 101, set by Troy Brown in 2001 -- but has just one reception of more than 40 yards. While Moss is frightening to opposing defenses, Welker is frustrating. As a slot receiver, Welker is the guy who consistently gets open underneath when Moss stretches the secondary. While Moss specialty is touchdowns, Welker's is first downs. He moves the chains. He has an uncanny knack for finding the holes in the secondary, almost never drops a ball, and, perhaps best of all, is very difficult to bring down, invariably picking up extra yards after making a catch. "He's been a very productive player for us," said Josh McDaniels, the Patriots' offensive coordinator. "He's given us an element of catch-and-run yards that don't always get measured in practice. You throw a 5-yard completion in practice, it looks like a 5-yard completion. You throw that to him in a game, and it turns into a 25-yard gain. Wes has made a lot of plays for us." It was because Welker had made so many plays against New England when he was playing for Miami that the Patriots decided they needed to get him -- trading second and seventh-round choices to the Dolphins for him last March. "We couldn't handle him," Pats coach Bill Belichick said recently. "We played against him twice a year and we couldn't handle him -- couldn't tackle him, couldn't cover him and had to double him a lot. He was a tough guy for us to match up with." Welker first displayed his versatility to the Patriots as a rookie with Miami in 2004. When Dolphins' kicker Olindo Mare hurt his leg in pre-game warmups, Welker stepped in and booted a 29-yard field goal and an extra-point, in addition to his regular duties returning punts and kickoffs. "He's tough, he's smart and he works hard," Belichick said. "He does a lot of things well. He's a hard guy to handle." Particularly when he's working with Moss. Together, they give the Patriots a 1-2 punch to rival that of the legendary Joe Louis. It's as if the Pats jab-jab-jab with Welker, then deliver the knockout blow with Moss. "What I think I'm proudest of (Welker) for," McDaniels said, "is that he's one of the finest blockers that we've had in the slot that we've ever had here. Troy (Brown) was good, but Wes does a great job. He really gets in there and tries to fit up whomever he needs to in the running game. He's done a great job for us in that aspect." Welker has done a great job for the Patriots in all aspects of the game, including punt and kickoff returns. He averaged 10.4 yards on 25 punt returns this season, and 25.1 yards on 7 kickoff returns. He is, indeed, very much like Brown, who someday will be enshrined in the Patriots Hall of Fame for his accomplishments -- including playing in the defensive backfield -- in his 15 seasons with New England. "They're very similar-type players," Pats' QB Tom Brady said. "They have great quickness, great awareness, great hands. They're both 5-7, 5-8, or whatever they are. They're very nifty in the slot. Wes is fearless going over the middle. He's so elusive. I don't remember any matchups where he didn't have an edge with his quickness." Throughout this undefeated season, opposing defenses have been overmatched trying to cover both Moss and Welker. Moss creates openings for Welker. And, because of Welker, defenses can't concentrate solely on Moss. It took the Bolivian Army to stop Butch and Sundance. With Welker complementing Moss as well as he does, it may take at least that much to stop the two of them. (Contact Jim Donaldson at jdonalds@projo.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)