Belichick's not on IR, so don't count Pats out

Now that Tom Brady has been sidelined for the season, the popular assumption is that the New England Patriots are as crippled as their quarterback and have no chance to repeat in the AFC East.

Don't worry Patriots fans: Bill Belichick is still in charge. (AP)

Maybe, but I'm not ready to go there. First, this is Bill Belichick we're talking about, not Steve Spurrier. Second, the last time Belichick lost his starting quarterback, I seem to remember the Patriots surviving.

OK, so Matt Cassel is no Tom Brady -- or at least it doesn't look that way -- but it's not as much Cassel who determines what happens here as it is the coach, and I think we're about to learn a lot about Belichick.

As I said, the last time he lost his starting quarterback was when Drew Bledsoe bowed out in Game 2 of the 2001 season. Brady stepped in, and the Patriots not only kept moving forward, they improved -- winding up in a Super Bowl they would win.

Belichick has a knack of making the best of bleak situations, and rewind the videotape to 2004 when he lost so many defensive backs he was compelled to plug in veteran wide receiver Troy Brown when the Patriots went to dime coverages.

Again, they survived. In fact, again they wound up in a Super Bowl they would win.

OK, so this is something different. This isn't just a quarterback. This is Tom Friggin' Brady, for crying out loud, the league MVP and a guy who just completed a 50-touchdown season. He loses about as often as the Indians' Cliff Lee, so subtracting him from the lineup has an enormous impact on New England's chances to succeed.

But this is why Belichick gets paid the big bucks. I would guess that most of you would name Belichick as one of your top three coaches in the game, and maybe, just maybe, most of you would put him at the top of that list.

It's time we find out why.

What I expect to happen now that Brady's gone is that New England doesn't beat opponents with the pass but instead turns to Laurence Maroney and LaMont Jordan and tries to grind them down with a run here, a run there and the occasional bomb.

Maroney is a first-round talent who averages 4.4 yards a carry and scored six times rushing each of the last two seasons. Sounds good to me. Jordan is a former starter for the Oakland Raiders who ran for 1,025 yards in 2005 and averages 4.1 yards per try in his career. That sounds like a winner, too.

But just because you're turning the offense over to a quarterback who hasn't started a game doesn't mean you abandon the pass. New England still has receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker in the lineup, which means there's always the threat of the big play.

The Chiefs discovered that lesson the hard way, with Cassel connecting with Moss on a 51-yard pass on his third snap Sunday. Cassel later found Moss for a touchdown on the same drive.