The Daily ItemFOXBOROUGH – Back in 2006 – the year the New England Patriots tried to make do with a stable of forgettable receivers – they went down to Miami and played one of the worst games of the Bill Belichick era.One of the biggest thorns in their side that day was a diminutive receiver named Wes Welker.After the season ended, and the Patriots went about reworking their receiver corps, Belichick et al made a huge splash when they acquired Randy Moss from the Oakland Raiders. In a less ballyhooed acquisition, however, they pried Welker loose from a Miami organization that thoroughly deserved its 1-15 record in 2007. With personnel decisions like that, it’s no wonder they were terrible.Welker has been everything for New England that he was against them. All he’s done in his 21/2 years here is catch the ball. He’s gone long, he’s gone short, he’s gone left, he’s gone right. It hasn’t really mattered where he’s gone, how many people surrounded him, or what the situation was. Wes Welker has caught the ball.Two months ago, when the Patriots went down to New Jersey to play the Jets, Welker was on the shelf with a back injury. Quarterback Tom Brady, with no reliable safety valve, had a difficult time coping with the kitchen-sink blitz Jets coach Rex Ryan threw at him. Not-so-surprisingly, the Patriots lost that game.Sunday, in the Patriots’ 31-14 win over the Jets, Rex and Co. had to cope with, and game plan for, Welker and it would appear they did a pretty poor job of it. While cornerback Darrelle Revis can point to another reasonably good day at defending Moss, whoever the defenders were who got the assignment to contain Welker, they were off their games.Welker had 15 catches for 192 yards – both career highs. And it begs the question of how, with all the glitter surrounding him on the field, does Welker do his Energizer Bunny impression week after week.”Well, when you’re in the slot the way he is, you have the whole field to work with,” said Brady. “You can go short left, short right, long left, long right. Plus, he’s a little guy and he just works his way in there.”You can stop at any point and you’re typically on the third defensive back that comes on the field,” Brady said. “You’re a part of all the combinations ? when you’re the outside guy, you’re usually against the better players and you have a limited amount of field to work.”Brady marvels at how tough Welker is.”He takes a lot of (hits),” Brady said. “When you work in the inside of the field, that’s where all the big guys are at. He scoots his way in there and he’s always fighting for extra yards, so he’s one of the toughest guys I’ve ever played with. And his durability is pretty impressive for the kinds of shots he takes.”Welker had a feeling he was going to see a lot of footballs coming his way Sunday.”Just watching film of the way they played us last time with Randy, and things like that,” Welker said. “Knowing they were going to match Revis on him and play a lot of deep safeties back there – stuff like that – and being able to work the middle of the field there.”Perhaps Welker’s best catch of the day came on a rare 43-yard bomb that set up the first of Laurence Maroney’s two touchdowns.Welker isn’t the primary target for those bombs. Moss is. But Revis (and let’s not quibble about him; he is a legitimate shutdown corner) barely allowing Moss to breathe, Welker recognized something in the defense. Brady saw it too, and bingo. The completion set up the Pats on the Jets three-yard line.”I think they (the Jets) got confused on how they wanted to play it,” he said. “I noticed it and Tom saw it too. So we just took off down the field and were able to make a big play happen.”Welker toes the party line about personal accomplishments, saying, “I don’t look into (them) really too much.”I’m out there doing my job, and trying to do it well, and everything else falls by the wayside,” he said. “It’s definitely cool to be able to get those catches, and I’ll probably look back a