FOXBORO -- Asking Bill Belichick to name his favorite Kevin Faulk moment might be like asking a father to choose his favorite child. There's no way he could pick just one.
That's why when the Patriots coach was asked for a Faulk play that stood out in his mind, Belichick rattled off a 558-word answer that touched on five separate plays as well as countless other third-down conversions and practice reps. Had he listed them all, Belichick might've missed his team's Monday night practice inside Gillette Stadium.
"There are a lot of them," Belichick said, moments after speaking during Faulk's Patriots Hall of Fame induction ceremony. "They were talking about them today. The two-point play against Carolina [in Super Bowl XXXVIII] was a huge play. It was the only time he scored all year. Kevin didn’t have a lot of touchdowns, he wasn’t a big scorer. He was big on third-down conversions and a returner, more of a situational player.
"The touchdown against the Jets during the playoff game [during the 2006 season] when they were in an all-out blitz, it was another smart play . . .
"One play I remember for sure is the kickoff return he had against us when I was coaching in New York in 1999, his rookie year. He ran it back to about the five-yard line. It was about a 95-yard return or something, so I remember him on both sides.
"So many of his plays were just, third-and-six and he got seven, third-and-four and he got five, third-and-three and he got four. He just had a great knack [for making plays], like Troy [Brown] did. [He was] a very instinctive player, had a great knack for playing the game. He always seemed to do the right thing, even if it wasn’t a play made, maybe there was no more than what he could get, he got what he could get. He did the right thing, he made the right play. Maybe he was supposed to go out on a pass, he saw somebody come free on a rush, left his pattern to protect so we could get the play off. I mean, whatever it was, that’s what made him great is all the little things, the kind of unsung plays. They weren’t little plays, they were big plays, but they weren’t necessarily all 90-yarders. They were just those plays that kept drives going.
"That third-and-11 against the Colts in the AFC Championship game in 2004, we were on our own 10-yard line or something, backed up, and we get out of there on third-and-10 with an 11-yard conversion and Corey [Dillon] ended up scoring on that drive and it kind of iced the game, plays like that.
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"The Denver game out in Denver [in 2003], the Monday night game, catches the screen after he took the safety, got the ball back, catches the screen pass, goes down and puts us in position where we hit [David] Givens on the touchdown. But it got us into field goal range, so if we [had to] make the kick, it would have put the game in overtime.
"They just go on and on, and you know what, those plays were the same thing in practice, too. It wasn’t just the games. We ran those plays in practice and he converted most of them there too."