Tom E. Curran • E-mail

It’s been murmured lately that the job done by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick so far in 2008 is the best coaching he’s ever done.

Sorry. No.

I mean, it’s pretty good to be 7-4 when you lost the best quarterback on the planet seven minutes into the season and have since been relying on the right arm of a kid who hadn’t started a football game since before his senior prom.

And it’s a helluva thing all these other injuries the Patriots have been dealing with on both sides of the ball — every running back not named BenJarvus has been injured, grizzled lead-pipe wielding safety Rodney Harrison’s lost for the year, Adalius Thomas has a broken arm, assorted other would-be contributors have been knocked out for the year. In short, it’s been hard.

But to call this the best coaching job Bill Belichick’s ever done? Seriously? As Fletch once famously said, “Maybe you guys need a refresher … ”

The man’s got two Super Bowl game plans in the Hall of Fame. There’s the one from 1990 when he was defensive coordinator of the Giants and they held a Bills offense that scored a cool 51 in the AFC Championship to 19 in the ultimate game. And there’s the one from 2001 when the Patriots pounded The Greatest Show on Turf into submission and pulled the biggest Super Bowl upset until February 2008.

And while we all remember well what happened in February 2008 out in Glendale, Ariz., to allege that going 7-4 with a backup quarterback is somehow more impressive than coaching a team to an 18-0 record is a stretch. Even if they did have a heart attack on their way to being crowned the best team ever in any sport (and you coulda made the case), winning 18 straight in a single season’s — with all the chaos and controversy that swirled around them (much of it self-inflicted with those video cameras)? That’s gotta be better than being in second place in the AFC East after 11 games, doesn’t it?

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Honestly, what Belichick and the Patriots did in 2003 and 2004 when they won 21 straight games over two seasons? That beats this year as well. Remember, in 2003 they got whipped 31-0 in the opener by Buffalo just days after releasing Lawyer Milloy and started the season 2-2 before winning their next 15 games in a row including a Divisional Playoff game epic over the Titans, a complete dismantling o f the all-powerful Colts in the AFC Championship then a rugged, 32-29 win over the Panthers? Their feature back that season? Antowain Smith. Their wide receiver corps? Troy Brown, Deion Branch and David Givens.

And in 2004, they lost Pro Bowl corner Ty Law, left tackle Matt Light and running back Kevin Faulk for extended periods. They were so thin that — for long stretches of that season, Troy Brown was playing cornerback. And they still went 14-2 and won the Super Bowl.

Look, what the Patriots are doing without Tom Brady has been remarkable. Matt Cassel has proven the team’s belief that they’d be better off with someone playing quarterback who knew their system and philosophy than some hired gun who had more experience.

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