Krause: Wanted: Guys who make plays

Once again, the National Football League will put its college draft day on public display Saturday. It’ll be broadcast live, and pundits – including Swampscott native Todd McShay – will be all over the tube extolling or panning the virtues of the draftee of the hour.They’ll talk about how fast he runs ? how far he can throw the ball ? how easily he can outrun defenders ? how he has the potential to be a shutdown cornerback, or an impenetrable lineman.In fact, these pundits will trot out statistics we’ve never heard of. But they’ll be very, very light on the only statistic that counts: Can this particular draftee make a play? Never mind can he make one when it counts. But can he make one, period?The Patriots won three Super Bowls in four years not because they had a stable of players who ran the 50 in record time, or made eye-popping, acrobatic catches, or anything like that. They won because they had players on both sides of the ball who simply made plays. However they did it, they had the ability to be at their best when the situation demanded it.Conversely, the Patriots lost this year’s Super Bowl because none of their players on defense could make just one play when it counted. They had All-Pros all over the field, including a cornerback (Asante Samuel) who just broke the bank to sign with the Philadelphia Eagles.But Samuel couldn’t make a play when the situation called for one. He had Eli Manning picked off, and he also had clear sailing to the end zone (had he caught the ball) for a touchdown that would have made this past season truly historic.Instead, the ball sailed through his hands, and Manning took the New York Giants downfield and scored the winning touchdown.I think we all agree that Richard Seymour may turn out to be among the league’s best-ever defensive ends. But Seymour – when he had a chance to wrap up the Super Bowl for the Patriots in February – couldn’t wrap up Manning for what would have been at least a 10-yard loss on a third-down play.Manning wiggled free of both Seymour and Jarvis Green and found David Tyree downfield. And Tyree made a play that may have catapulted into first place on the “Best Super Bowl Play of All Time” list.Keep going. Ellis Hobbs fell trying to cover Plaxico Burress on the winning touchdown, leaving the Giants receiver so open that even Kordell Stewart would have hit him between the numbers.When the Patriots were winning, it was because Tom Brady – never mentioned in the same breath as Peyton Manning or even Carson Palmer when it comes to natural talent – found the knack, whether through coolness or smarts, to make big plays in critical moments. Think of Troy Brown in the first Super Bowl victory, making a couple of clutch receptions in the winning drive. Think of Brown, again, catching that pass in overtime in Miami in 2003 – a game that sparked the Patriots to go undefeated the rest of the way. Then, remember Brown didn’t even suit up for the 1997 Super Bowl.Think of Adam Vinatieri, never the strongest kicker in the history of the NFL, but certainly the most accurate when it mattered most.Think of Tedy Bruschi and all the clutch plays he’s made for the Patriots, or Mike Vrabel. None of these names were rolling off Mel Kuiper Jr.’s tongue, I assure you.So here’s a novel thought for the Patriots. Ignore all those eye-popping statistics and find guys who can make plays. Because those are the guys who will win you another couple of Super Bowls.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item