Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

Small-town boy makes big gains

Smith runs up his offensive reputation

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - When Patriots running back Kevin Faulk saw someone shove a cereal box in front of teammate Antowain Smith, he stood in the middle of the winners' locker room and cackled.

''You're like Flutie now, you're like Flutie,'' he said. ''You're on the cover of a Wheaties box.''

Smith turned the box over in his hands, saw his No. 32 smack-dab in the middle of the assortment of Patriots decorating somebody's future breakfast.

''Hot damn,'' Smith said softly, ''I've done made the Wheaties box. How's that, coming from the small town of Millbrook, Alabama?''

How's that, for a guy who didn't play football in high school until his senior year, spent his first two years out of high school in a $4.85-an-hour job in a dye factory, working to support his grandparents, and who would have quit on his first day of practice at East Mississippi Community College except he couldn't find anybody to come pick him up and bring him home.

And as recently as last May, when he was released by the Buffalo Bills, Smith wasn't exactly on the fast track to where he stood last night, outrushing the National Football League's most celebrated back, the Rams' Marshall Faulk, with a 92-yard, 18-carry performance that played a major part in limiting the damage Faulk could inflict on the Patriots.

''We ran it right down their throats and our defense smacked them in the mouth,'' said Patriots guard Damien Woody. ''We wanted to give them a steady diet of 32 [Smith] and 80 [Troy Brown] and run it right at them. We knew we were a more physical team than they were and we showed it today.

''Not taking anything away from Marshall Faulk. He's a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal player. He deserves all the credit he gets, and being from New Orleans and all, this was like a homecoming for him.

''But Antowain showed today what he's all about. He isn't no slouch, either. He's the real deal, too.''

And if you want to call it a fairy tale, said guard Mike Compton, another of the linemen who opened holes last night for Smith, be advised the ending isn't exactly the way you remembered it.

''Cinderella,'' Compton said, ''doesn't have to go home tonight. Cinderella's going to [be busy].''

Smith did not score a touchdown last night, but he ate up enough time and yardage, mostly on sweeps, that Faulk and the Rams never really had a chance to turn this game into the track meet that was predicted. He also didn't make any mistakes like the one that had haunted him since the Patriots lost to the Rams in November, when he fumbled on the 3-yard line and the Rams went 97 yards for a score that turned the game around.

''I felt like I lost that game,'' he said last night. ''I was out there running tonight with a chip on my shoulder.''

He also was running with a tattoo on his right biceps, one that said: ''To John and Clara, in loving memory.''

The tattoo honors John and Clara Smith, the grandparents who raised him. ''I know they're smiling at me tonight,'' he said. ''They always told me to work hard and stay in school, and good things would happen. And here I am.''

Smith tweaked an ankle in the first half, after a series in which he ran the ball four times in the span of six plays.

''But I told my teammates there was no way I was going to come out,'' he said. ''I just got it taped up and went back out there.''

Patriots coach Bill Belichick said that putting the ball in Smith's hands was a big part of the plan last night.

''What we wanted to do was run the ball, to try to give our defense a break,'' Belichick said.

The Patriots' defense showed no signs of breaking until late in the game, when the Rams needed just 21 seconds to score the tying touchdown.

''I blame our offense for that touchdown,'' Compton said. ''Our defense played a hell of a game. They bent, bent, bent, but didn't break.

''We were to blame for them scoring. Two series in a row, we went three and out, and our defense was getting tired.''

But even with time running out, Smith said he was confident the Patriots' offense would respond.

''We did the same thing against Oakland in the playoffs,'' said Smith, who was on the sideline as the Patriots used J.R. Redmond in an obvious passing situation. ''I had all the confidence in the world in Tom Brady.''

And when Adam Vinatieri lined up for the winning field goal.

''Shoot,'' Smith said, ''I knew if he could kick it through the snow, he could kick it through the confetti.''