New England fell for Cincinnati's fake field goal, but it's not likely it will be fooled agains versus Miami.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, December 17, 2004

BY TOM E. CURRAN
Journal Sports Writer

FOXBORO -- There's an old NFL saying that pertains to special teams. It goes something like this: "Tis better to have been burned and learned than to never have been burned at all. Especially during the regular season. Because if you don't get burned then and it's like, the AFC Championship and someone gets by you for a fake field goal touchdown, what then? You've pretty much blown a shot at the Super Bowl, guys lose jobs and -- on top of all that -- you're an easy mark for NFL Films for the next three decades or so."

All right, it's not an old saying. But it's a worthwhile thought. Especially for the New England Patriots. Last week, the Cincinnati Bengals scored an 11-yard touchdown off a field-goal formation when their holder burst off the right side of the Patriots' defense, picked up a block and scored.

It allowed a pesky but outgunned Bengals team to hang around that much longer. The logic behind these plays is sound, especially against the Patriots.

Because really, what's there to lose? The game? Considering they are 29-3 since the start of last season, you're pretty much guaranteed to lose to New England if you play by the book, so why not go off the board a little?

Coach Bill Belichick has his antennae up this week as the Patriots take on a Dolphins team that's 2-11 and (ahem) a longshot for the playoffs.

"They've taken a much more aggressive attitude strategically toward the game," Belichick said of the Dolphins. "Defensively, they're pressuring a little bit more, which I know (interim coach) Jim [Bates] likes to do. Offensively, they've really opened things up with some trick plays, reverse passes, flea flickers, reverses, stuff like that. . . . In the kicking game, it's the same thing. We saw the fake punt (in Foxboro that failed), but a couple of weeks later they hit one against St. Louis. They ran reverses on the kickoff returns. We know that (kicker Olindo] Mare is a great onside kick-bounce kicker. I'm sure that there are a lot of elements in the kicking game that we've seen and some that we haven't seen, especially after we got hit with one last time that we're going to have to really be alert for."

The Patriots have been terrific this season on some aspects of special teams. The two guys who put their foot to the ball -- kicker Adam Vinatieri and punter Josh Miller -- are kicking as well as anyone.

Other aspects haven't been as good. The Pats are averaging just 5.9 yards per punt return and Kevin Faulk has made some curious fair-catch decisions in recent weeks. Bethel Johnson busted a 93-yard kickoff return two weeks ago but otherwise he's been held down compared to his scintillating rookie season when he led the AFC in kickoff return average. This year, Johnson is fifth in the AFC in average returns at 24.8.

Most interesting, though, is the fact that teams have been able to hit big plays against New England on returns (the Bills returned a kickoff for a score in one matchup, a punt in the other) and out of kick formations. In Buffalo, Bills punter Brian Moorman botched a snap and ran 34 yards for a first down. The Dolphins got stopped on their bit of skullduggery but Cincinnati's success last week has reinvigorated concerns.

"When they score a touchdown there is always something that you could have done differently and done better," Belichick said. "We could have done something else. I don't know what would have happened if we had or if we hadn't. I don't know."

Simply put, the Bengals hit the Patriots with a play that overwhelmed their field-goal-blocking scheme. Only one Patriot -- Don Davis -- really had a shot at holder Kyle Larson and he was effectively sealed off and driven downfield by a block.

"They did a better job on the play than we did," Belichick said. "Could we have done something else? Yes, sure."

Asked yesterday if the players' consciousness would be raised by last week's play, Belichick said, "It isn't like we didn't talk about those things. It isn't like we haven't seen fakes before. Like I said, Miami ran one against us in the first game. So, we have seen those things before. We talk about them every week. A lot of times it is hard to practice the fake that a team runs, because they aren't going to come and run the same fake every week. However they fake it this week, there will be something different next week or the next time they do it. You have to be ready for everything, but that is nothing new. That is just the way it is."

The only thing the Patriots can really do is prepare for guerilla football.

"I can't imagine any team going into a game saying, 'They aren't going to fake it. You don't ever have to worry about that,' " he said. "The guy who has responsibility to force the play on the edge, that is his job. It doesn't matter whether it is the first week of the preseason, the last game of the regular season or anywhere in between. It doesn't matter who the opponent is. That guy has to force it. Somebody else has to cover an eligible receiver. When it happens quickly out there in the game and it is a reactionary play, sometimes you get it and sometimes you don't. But, you still are prepared for it and you have to work on it. You just have to handle it when it happens."

And hope that they won't get fooled again.