Asked if he could bask in the glory of marching up the ranks in the NFL record books, Moss simply said:

"The main thing I can go home and hang my hat on is the victory. You know, we did some good things out there, but I think Coach is really going to give it to us Wednesday about the things we did out there."

This is what it means to be a New England Patriot.

Moss tied a personal record with 12 catches in Monday's game, posted his 60th career 100-yard game (second in league history only to Jerry Rice's 72), and moved past Rod Smith and Irving Fryar on the all-time receptions list to pull into 13th with 855, seven behind Jimmy Smith.

But after the game, Moss refused to play the role of self-promoter -- unlike the fellow wearing 81 in the other locker room, Terrell Owens -- and instead praised his quarterback for yet another miracle finish, and his teammates for getting the job done after a first half that redefined "futility."

“Over Tom’s career, he’s been coached very well here,” Moss said of Tom Brady, who won his first game since the 2007 AFC Championship Game by completing 39 of 53 passes (one interception) for 378 yards and two touchdowns. “When he comes in that huddle, everybody is looking up to him and (we) want him to lead us down the field. And when you have a guy like that leading you down the field, I mean, you can’t do nothing but try to run through a brick wall for him.”

Brady’s return was the focal point for a nation that wanted to see if there were any residual effects from the told knee ligaments suffered in last season’s opener. For at least the first half, the Patriots looked out of sync and unfocused on offense, and the cynics were already suggesting that Tiffany & Co. would have to buff the Patriots’ engraved name off the 2009 Vince Lombardi Trophy.

“Well, you know, we have a really competitive locker room and we have a really competitive team,” Brady said. “When you’re in a situation like we were with 5:30 left and you’ve got to make the plays, it takes every guy on the field to really step it up. We’ve played pretty good situational football here for a long time, so hopefully we continue to do that and continue to make improvements and not leave it up to those end of the game situations like we did.”

Brady’s two touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, both to redeemed tight end Benjamin Watson, engineered his 29th career comeback win. His 378 yards were his fifth-highest career total and his 39 completions the most he has had in a regulation game, and he is now 22-2 in regular season games when he has thrown for more than 300 yards.

But it’s not enough, he said.

“We’ve all got to improve,” he said. “We’ve all got to make better plays. You can’t leave it up to chance like that. There are just way too many things that if, had we not made them, we would have lost. We’ve got to find ways to play better situationally.

“It starts with me and taking better care of the ball and making the throws when I have guys open, making better and more efficient reads, and making more accurate throws,” he added. “So we’ll put some work on that this week and hopefully we’ll go out and play better next week.”