page_title: Randy Moss
section_title: 2009 season
hierarchical_section_title: Randy Moss / Professional football career / New England Patriots / 2009 season
caption_attribution_description: Randy Moss #81 of the New England Patriots before a preseason game against the Washington Redskins at FedExField on August 28, 2009 in Landover, Maryland.
context_page_description: Randy Gene Moss is an American sports analyst and former professional football player. He played wide receiver for 14 seasons in the National Football League. He holds the NFL single-season touchdown reception record, the NFL single-season touchdown reception record for a rookie, and is second on the NFL all-time regular season touchdown reception list with 156. Post-football, he began working for ESPN as a studio analyst for their Sunday NFL Countdown and Monday Night Countdown programs.
  Moss played college football for Marshall University, and twice earned All-America honors. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft, where he played for seven years before a trade in 2005 brought him to the Oakland Raiders. In 2007, Moss was traded to the New England Patriots for a fourth-round draft pick, where he set the single-season record for touchdown receptions. In October 2010, Moss returned to the Vikings in a trade from the Patriots but was waived less than a month later, where he was being claimed by the Tennessee Titans.
context_section_description: In the season opener of 2009, Moss caught a career-high 12 passes for 141 yards in a comeback 25–24 victory over the Bills. In Week 5 against the Denver Broncos, Moss was placed deep in coverage on a Broncos Hail Mary attempt to end the first half, and intercepted Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton. In a snowy Week 6 game against the winless Tennessee Titans, Moss caught three touchdown passes from Tom Brady, two of them in the 2nd quarter as Brady set a record for most touchdown passes in a single quarter with five. This was Moss's 34th multi-touchdown game, and his 8th game with 3 or more touchdowns.
  During the Patriots bye week, Belichick stated that Moss "is the smartest receiver he's ever been around." He compared Moss' ability to see the field and anticipate plays to that of Tom Brady, and to Lawrence Taylor who Belichick coached with the New York Giants. He said Moss not only knows what he's doing on a play, but what everybody else on the field is doing as well. "That's what makes them special. They just have a sixth, seventh sense", Belichick said. This sentiment was repeated when Moss was inducted into the Hall of Fame, as Belichick went further to say he learned from Moss.
  In Week 9 against the Miami Dolphins Moss added 6 catches for 147 yards and 1 touchdown. The touchdown reception was the 140th of his career, which moved him into a tie for 2nd place with Terrell Owens.
  The following week, in a prime time Sunday night matchup against the Indianapolis Colts, Moss had 179 yards and two touchdowns, including a 63-yard touchdown in the 2nd quarter that moved him ahead of Terrell Owens for sole possession of 2nd place in career touchdown receptions. In the same game, he became just the 11th player in NFL history with 900+ receptions and the 7th player to reach 14,000+ career receiving yards.
  He finished the season with 83 receptions for 1,264 yards and an NFL-high 13 touchdowns. New England would lose the AFC Wild Card playoff to the Baltimore Ravens 33–14.
caption: Moss in 2009
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