For reasons of decorum, the player didn't want his name used. His point wasn't to disrespect the winless 2008 Detroit Lions, but to shed some light on the job Belichick did with the 2008 New England Patriots .

Think about it: You take Belichick, and you give him a plane ticket to Motown, then maybe he'd have X'd and O'd the poor, suffering Lions to a couple or three W's this season, maybe more.

Do you believe that? If so, then ask yourself this: Take Belichick away from this year's Patriots, does 11-5 happen?

Again, we will never know. What we do know is that the 2008 Patriots lost 14 players to injured reserve, including a future Hall of Famer named Tom Brady and a couple of stalwarts named Adalius Thomas and Rodney Harrison. Yet by late yesterday afternoon they stepped out of the Ralph Wilson Wind Tunnel with a 13-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills to finish an improbable 11-5.

There will be no playoff run this year. The Pats needed some help from the Jets yesterday, and that all went up in smoke when Brett Favre threw his third interception of the game with just over four minutes remaining in the loss to the division-winning Dolphins.

So we are left with an 11-5 record, with Matt Cassel at quarterback.

It wasn't supposed to be this way. Belichick was only 41-57 as a head coach without Tom Brady. And, really, you didn't have to remember that at all, with somebody ready to remind you that Belichick is just some garden-variety coach when he's not hanging out with Brady.

So then what are we to make of Belichick's 2008 season? He lost Brady, so he handed the playbook to Cassel, famous for never having started a game during his four years at USC.

Now you saw Cassel during the preseason, right? And you were not impressed, right? Was ANYBODY impressed? Even the guys on The NFL Network were guffawing.

So Belichick took the untested Cassel and tossed him into the fire. And here we are, 16 weeks later, and the Pats close out the regular season at 11-5.

From now on, Belichick's critics will have to point out what the coach's record is without Brady AND Cassel.

This is Belichick's best season as a head coach, is it not? Yes, he has the three Super Bowl rings. Yes, he put together a team that went 16-0 last season. The year before that, he took the Pats to the AFC title game.

But given what he had to work with, and given the 11-5 record, this represents the man's best COACHING, if not his best season.

``That's for you (media) guys to decide,'' said center Dan Koppen. ``But it seems like when the season's over, he spends even more time in the office, trying to work on next year.''

Said linebacker Junior Seau: ``He did a great job of getting us ready. He surrounds himself with great people, from the top to the bottom. This has to be the greatest job of his career. ''

Fullback Heath Evans took us back to Saturday night's team meeting.

``I have to be honest, some of the things he thinks of are things that never even occurred to me,'' he said. ``At the meeting, he's showing us tape of how the wind blows at the stadium. He was talking about punting on third down.

``All these scenarios he comes up with . . . some of them I write down so that when I coach I can appear smart to my players.''

But perhaps the most honest assessment was delivered by cornerback Ellis Hobbs.

``Bill's not going to sit here and take full credit, and I'm not going to sit here and take full credit,'' said Hobbs. ``No one on this coaching staff or on this team is going to take full credit. By no means am I taking any credit away from coach Belichick, but he always taught us that everyone has to do their part.''

Somehow, he taught a banged-up team with an inexperienced quarterback how to go 11-5. So it's pretty dumb not to recognize, now, that he might just be a genius after all.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com