FOXBOROUGH – The last time anyone saw Randy Moss, he was on TV last Sunday, giving a terse statement that lasted just over a minute, alternately thanking his teammates and friends for standing by him and excoriating the rest of the world for quitting on him the way they thought he quit on the Patriots.That was last week. Apparently all is forgiven – both on Moss’s part and the part of the Gillette Stadium fans.Moss caught three touchdown passes Sunday in New England’s 35-7 AFC East-clinching win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was the ninth time in his career that Moss has caught three scoring passes in a game, and the 35th time he’s caught at least two.The last time Moss played at Gillette – two weeks ago – he was booed off the field after catching only one pass ? and fumbling it. Last week, against the Buffalo Bills, Moss caught four passes, including one for a touchdown, and took the surly route after the game with the media.There was no such surliness Sunday. Moss caught only four passes – one could say it was one of the more economical games in his career – while old reliable Wes Welker pulled in 13 for 138 yards.But the signature moment of the game – and maybe even the season (for Moss, anyway) – came after he scored touchdown No. 3. The Jaguars challenged it, and while everyone waited for the referees to go over it, the stadium camera panned a fan in the crowd who had a Randy Moss mask on, with corresponding Afro (word has it that the mask costs somewhere in the vicinity of $49). Someone on the sidelines noticed it, and pointed it out to Moss, who had a great time with it.”Some of my teammates,” Moss said, “were telling me that I should mess with him.”Instead, Moss broke out in a wide grin as he reacted to the fan. And for at least the next two minutes, the camera kept going back and forth between the fan and Moss – all of it recorded on the Jumbotron – with the fan mimicking some of Moss’s moves ? and Moss giving it right back, again, with a wide grin on his face.”That,” said Welker, “was pretty extraordinary. Then again, what he does on the field is extraordinary.”The Gillette fans obviously loved Moss’s good nature about it all ? and perhaps they saw a side of him they hadn’t seen in the three seasons he’s been in New England. It was also a little uncharacteristic of the Patriots in general, who, under coach Bill Belichick, do not generally engage in such byplay.Whatever they thought, as the Jumbotron exchange wound down, the fans began chanting Moss’s name.”I want to know where I can get one of those masks,” said quarterback Tom Brady.Moss was still in a mood to talk about it afterward.”That was very entertaining,” he said. “That’s what happens when everything goes well. You have fun.”There are going to be some good times, and there are going to be bad times in football,” Moss said. “That made me feel good ? the fans chanting my name. My last performance here wasn’t so hot.”But for Moss, the best thing about Sunday was the fact that for the second time in three seasons, the Patriots clinched the AFC East.”It’s good to have it back in New England,” he said.Steve Krause is sports editor of The Item.