Bill Belichick, as you'd expect, was pretty upbeat as he met the media today. He said yesterday's game with Baltimore "like a lot of games, came down to a handful of plays."

Among the topics Belichick was asked to touch on:

* Pointing out to his team that referee Ron Winter's crew calls tight games, as they have the highest number of called penalties the last two seasons and the second-highest number thus far this year;

* The play of Shawn Springs, who has been asked to play all over the defensive backfield thus far. "When we signed Shawn, we knew one of his strengths was his versatility";

* Sammy Morris' contribution, which is much greater than the raw statistics would show; Belichick noted that Morris' fourth-and-one conversion yesterday, and the one the week before that, were among the biggest plays in both games for New England. "He's come through for us time and time again";

* On Josh McDaniels, Belichick's protege, who has the Denver Broncos a surprising 4-0: "They've done a great job...it doesn't surprise me. I have all the respect in the world for Josh." Belichick said the two still talk fairly frequently, and admitted that he has an "advantage of knowledge" over Belichick and the Patriots for this game because McDaniels knows New England's personnel so well. He added, however, that while McDaniels knows the Pats' playbook, Belichick also knows McDaniels' offense, so that is basically a wash.

The locker room is slated to open around 3 o'clock.