But Marvin Harrison is out of football while Brady and Moss, both 32, are still rolling.

They wasted no time showing what two of the NFL’s best players at their positions could do together. In their first game, Moss caught nine passes for 183 yards and a 51-yard touchdown in the 2007 opener of a 16-0 regular season.

Then came the injury midway through the first quarter of the first game in 2008 against Kansas City. Brady was hit by defensive back Bernard Pollard but managed to throw a 28-yard completion to Moss, who lost the ball on a fumble.

Brady had accuracy problems early this season and has missed a wide-open Moss at times, most notably on an overthrown pass in the end zone in a 20-17 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos. But Moss has 49 catches for 712 yards and five touchdowns and Brady is sixth in the league with 2,364 yards passing and tied for third with 16 touchdown passes.

Coach Bill Belichick wasn’t surprised to see them work so well together again.

Slideshow   Peyton vs. Brady A look back at the 10 times Brady’s Patriots have faced Manning’s Colts. NBC Sports

“We had almost 50 practices in preseason. That’s not counting all the spring,” he said. “Those guys work hard. They are very talented players.”

Patriots linebacker Tully Banta-Cain missed the Brady-Moss debut season when he signed with San Francisco after four years with New England. He returned after being released in February.

With the 49ers, he heard a lot about two other combinations — Steve Young to Jerry Rice (second with 85 touchdowns) and Joe Montana to Rice (tied for ninth with 55).

“Everybody there is still kind of living in that era. That was a high standard that those guys set,” Banta-Cain said, but “you say Tom Brady and Randy Moss in the same sentence, you’re expecting good things to happen and that’s been the case.”

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