Sid Hartman: Patriots stars have an admirer in Grant

With their 31-20 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars on Saturday, the New England Patriots are one victory away from another Super Bowl and two victories away from a 19-0 season.

Even though he has been out of football for some time, former Vikings coach Bud Grant stays close to the game. He is a great admirer of the Patriots and especially two of their stars: quarterback Tom Brady and wide receiver Randy Moss, the former Vikings great.

"I have great admiration for Tom Brady," Grant said. "I think he's just about as good a quarterback as you'll see, both in his physical attributes -- his accuracy of his passing is outstanding -- and his demeanor. I think he's just about as good a quarterback as we've seen in this league, maybe forever."

Brady demonstrated that great accuracy Saturday night, completing 26 of 28 passes. The 92.6 percent completion percentage is an NFL record, regular season or postseason.

On Moss, Grant said: "Randy's doing a great job. He's got that great talent, and you take a great quarterback and put him with a great receiver and the combination is good. Randy's opening up a lot of avenues for a lot of those other receivers, too. They do a good job in picking up players that they need, to their credit."

How does Moss rank with some of the Vikings receivers Grant coached?

"Oh gosh, we had some great receivers. Randy's a great athlete. You don't realize how athletic he is unless you watch him in practice and see him in a game and see all the things that he does," Grant said. "Cris Carter probably has got better hands then Randy Moss had, but he didn't have exactly the athletic ability that Randy has.

Grant added that teams need luck to go unbeaten as well, noting Jacksonville dropped three passes in its loss.

Speaking of luck, the 1972 Dolphins -- the only NFL team to have a perfect season -- trailed the Vikings 14-6 in Week 3 with four minutes to play at Metropolitan Stadium. But Garo Yepremian hit a 51-yard field goal for Miami, then a roughing-the-passer penalty against the Vikings put the Dolphins in position to score a late touchdown, Bob Griese's 3-yard pass to Jim Mandich with 1:28 to go, for a 16-14 Miami victory.

Big deficit to victory Tubby Smith said that the 16-point deficit his Gophers men's basketball team overcame Saturday to win at Penn State was the second-largest comeback he has been involved with as a coach.

His largest deficit was 17 points, and it came in a pretty significant game for Kentucky -- the 1998 South Regional final vs. Duke in St. Petersburg, Fla. The Wildcats came back from 17 down over the final 9:38 to win 86-84 on their way to the national championship in Smith's first year at Kentucky.

As for Saturday's rally, which saw the Gophers come back after trailing 58-42 with 12:58 to play, Smith said: "We had plenty of time left in the game, and that's what I told the players: 'Don't panic, fellas. We've got plenty of time, just finish the game plan, let's carry out the game plan, keep attacking inside.'

Jottings One person I feel great for today is Ted Cottrell, the former Vikings defensive coordinator who was out of football for a year after Mike Tice got fired and turned up this year as the San Diego defensive coordinator. You saw how well the Chargers defense played Sunday in the victory over the Super Bowl champion Colts. They don't make them any classier than Cottrell.

In the 2005 draft, the Vikings took receiver Troy Williamson No. 7 overall. The Chargers took linebacker Shawne Merriman 12th. CBS' Boomer Esiason described Merriman pretty well Sunday when he said, "Merriman was a beast on the field." Can you imagine the Vikings defense now if Merriman was part of it?

What a weekend for former Gophers teammates Laurence Maroney and Marion Barber III. Maroney had 22 rushes for 122 yards, caught two passes for 40 yards and scored a touchdown for the Patriots on Saturday. On Sunday, the Cowboys lost to the Giants, but Barber ran 27 times for 129 yards and one TD.

The people who know talent in the NHL will tell you that Mikko Koivu -- not Marian Gaborik -- is the best all-around player on the Wild. So it is good news that Koivu is ready to play after missing eight weeks because of a broken leg, suffered when he was slashed at Vancouver on Nov. 16. "Koivu's made huge strides. I think he's a big-time battler; he's a courageous kid," Wild President Doug Risebrough said. "He's got the right size. He's one of those guys that makes people better, and a combination of having a guy like him and a guy like Gaborik, I think these are all positives for the team."

The Gophers will host a number of top junior high school football players in the state next Sunday, including Bloomington Jefferson quarterback Moses Alipate, who is ranked as the 59th-best junior in the country according to one recruiting service. Others expected to be on hand include offensive lineman Josh Campion of Fergus Falls, who has verbally committed to the Gophers; tight end Ra'Shede Hageman of Minneapolis Washburn; wide receiver Bryce McNeal of Breck; offensive lineman Ed Olson of Mahtomedi; defensive end Cole Jirik of Northfield; and running back Marcus Binns of Cretin-Derham Hall. Members of the class of 2010 who will attend include Beau Allen of Minnetonka, Seantrel Henderson of Cretin-Derham Hall and Joel Bauman of Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg.