FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Once again, Danny Amendola stood tall.

“Basically the same thing we’ve seen from him all year and for many years,” said New England offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels on the impact of the receiver and return man in the Patriots’ 19-14 win at Tampa Bay on Thursday night. “The guy, he’s a great football player. He does a lot of things well.”

What’s not to like?

Amendola caught all eight passes Tom Brady threw his way for 77 yards, including five for first downs and three third-down conversions. He helped in the blocking game and returned three punts for 51 yards, including a 40-yarder in the second quarter that led to a 23-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.

“I think Danny’s been one of our most dependable players since he’s been here,” Coach Bill Belichick said. “Catches the ball well, returns kicks, blocks well, has run after the catch and return ability. He’s made those plays every year. The Buffalo game, the opener four years ago, the plays he made in that game, I don’t think we would have had much chance to win without the plays he made on the last drive in Buffalo.”

Times were different then.

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Moving to counter Wes Welker’s departure for Denver, the Patriots lured Amendola – an unrestricted free agent from St. Louis – at a cost of $31 million over five years.

Amendola caught 10 passes for 104 yards in that debut against Buffalo, but wouldn’t prove to be the second coming of Welker. Julian Edelman developed into Brady’s go-to guy at wide receiver while Amendola caught 54, 27, 65 and 23 passes over his first four years with the team.

While you might not find him among the league leaders in receptions, and renegotiations of his contract to take less money have pretty much become annual occurrences in New England, Amendola’s contributions cannot be sold short.

Among them, fourth-quarter touchdown receptions in two come-from-behind wins in Super Bowls, also the 2-point conversion with less than a minute to play in regulation that sent that game in February to overtime.

“Every time he’s out there you feel good about what may happen if the ball’s headed toward him and he always comes up big in the biggest moments, the biggest games,” said McDaniels. “Danny’s having a very good beginning to the season and we want to continue to try to do that.”

With Edelman (knee injury) lost for the season and tight end Rob Gronkowski (thigh) a late scratch against the Buccaneers, Amendola pushed his reception totals to 23 catches in 27 targets for 267 yards and one touchdown in four games this season (he didn’t play against New Orleans in Week 2 with a concussion and knee injury). He has six punt returns for 112 yards, an 18.7-yard average.

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“I just try to be there for my teammates,” Amendola said Friday. “I’ve got a job to do, but it’s fun to get out there and make plays.”

Amendola’s shortcoming has been his health. At 31, he’s managed to go wire-to-wire in a season just twice, once (2010) in four years with the Rams and once (2014) in five years with New England.

But when he suits up, he’s often an impact player.

“I think when you look at a player like Danny, he’s a pretty dependable, consistent performer that gives us good plays every week,” said Belichick. “Just like any player, every player on our team, every coach, every player I’ve ever coached, there’s always plays that could be better. Every receiver drops a pass. Every quarterback has thrown an interception. Every defensive player has missed a tackle. Every field-goal kicker’s missed a kick. So we’ve all had them. Every coach has made bad calls. So we’ve all had them.

“You’re going to find even the great players are going to have them, but I’ll say Danny doesn’t have many.”


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