The assumption would seem to be safe after Wes Welker stole the show on Sunday.
Though Tom Brady was likely the only name the British knew heading into the game, they'll have a hard time forgetting Welker's.
The receiver was targeted by Brady 10 times, and Welker caught all 10 passes. Welker got the scoring started for the offense, following his blocks on a screen pass and finding the end zone near the end of the first quarter.
By the end of the game, he had 107 receiving yards, nearly matching Tampa Bay's 151 receiving yards as a team.
Brady, who doesn't think much of Welker's fashion sense, thinks rather highly of the football ability of his top target.
"He's all right, he's all right," Brady said in his postgame news conference. "He's a great player. He does everything right out there. He's always in the right spot. He gets open versus any coverage on any route. He and Randy [Moss] and the way [Sam Aiken] played, they all stepped up and made some great plays."
Brady was referring to Moss (five catches for 69 yards) and Aiken, whose 54-yard catch and run in the second quarter was the flashiest play of the game. But it was Welker who was unstoppable all day long.
Welker revealed a bit about his mentality, showing that he knows that nothing is guaranteed, not even for the league's leading pass catcher over the past three seasons.
"When you're catching five-yard routes, you've got to be able to do something with it afterward," he said. "That's something I definitely got to be able to do or I'll be out of a job here pretty quick. It's definitely something I take pride in and try to accomplish."
Welker also gave credit to his linemen for allowing him to score his touchdown.
"It was really well blocked," he said. "We got offensive linemen that can really get out there and block. When I got the screen, I saw [Ronde] Barber kind of slip, so I knew we had a chance to get in the end zone on that. So the guys did a great job of getting a hat on a hat, and I was able to get in the end zone on that."
Sunday's performance was just the latest installment in the incredibly consistent play of Welker. He has now caught six or more passes in 19 of the last 21 regular-season games, and he now has seven regular-season games with 10 or more receptions in his career. The Patriots are 3-0 this year when Welker catches 10 or more passes, as he caught 12 against Buffalo and 10 against Tennessee. For the first time in his career, he caught 10 or more passes in consecutive games — a period in which the Patriots outscored opponents 94-7.
Welker's also making his mark on Patriots history. In just his third season with the team, he's already ninth in receptions with 269. He's on pace to have more than 330 receptions as a Patriot by season's end, which would put him in sixth place behind Irving Fryar (363) and Terry Glenn (329).
Raheem Morris couldn't find a way to stop Welker, and the 33-year-old head coach doesn't think many others will.
"He's a problem, and he has a great quarterback that understands every defense, every situation that you're in," Morris said, according to ESPNBoston's Mike Reiss. "A lot of short passes … he has great ability to get the ball and run."
Bill Belichick said he's come to expect that kind of production from Welker.
"He had a lot of big plays, he had a couple third-down conversions," Belichick said after the game. "So he [came] through like he always does."
Coming through has certainly not been a problem for Welker in New England. Everyone in the NFL knew it, and now a whole new crop of European fans won't forget.
