Patriots Coach Bill Belichick is known as a bit of perfectionist. And certainly not as someone who shies away from giving his players a lesson -- occasionally, quite forcefully.

But there wasn't much he could say after his team failed to recover an onside kick by St. Louis yesterday.

"As much as I'd like to be upset about how we handled that, sometimes you've got to say that they really did a good job on that play," Belichick said.

Halftime had just ended, and Rams kicker Josh Brown immediately booted an onside kick to start the 2nd half, which was recovered by Travis Minor in front of Patriots tight end David Thomas. The unorthodox move paid off for the Rams, but Belichick said it hadn't taken his team by surprise.

"It was a very well executed play on their part -- but not a big surprise.... It was a perfect kick. It was perfect," Belichick said.

Perhaps his anger was tempered by the fact that his defense held, and denied St. Louis any points from the recovery.

"We definitely could have played it better, but it was a great play by St. Louis," Belichick said.