ASHBURN, Va. (AP) – New England Patriots cornerback Ty Law says coach Bill Belichick is the best when it comes to taking away a team’s strength.

“If coach Belichick has his mind on taking one facet of the offense out of the game, it’s going to happen,” Law said. “You’re going to have to beat the defense with something else.”

Then Law hit upon the problem: That strategy will not work this week against the Washington Redskins.

“They’re so diverse, you can’t sit there and just pick and choose one or two things,” Law said. “They have two No. 1 receivers lined up all the time, and their third and fourth receivers, they can play as well. You really can’t just follow one guy around like I have in the past.”

The Redskins are averaging a league-high 406 yards per game, led by the league’s top receiver, Laveranues Coles, who is averaging more yards per game (130) by himself than all the receivers for Baltimore, Carolina or Chicago combined.

“We know him all too well. I’ve seen plenty too much of him,” said Belichick, who faced Coles twice a year before the receiver left the Jets for the Redskins in the offseason. “I was obviously happy to see him leave the Jets, but not happy to have to play against him now with the Redskins.”

Belichick said Spurrier has found an effective way to take advantage of Coles’ speed, using screens and other quick passes and reverses.

“Where it really looks like he’s contained, it looks like a nothing play, and then he’s got 25, 40 yards out of it just on his run-after-catch skills,” Belichick said. “What makes Coles so good is that he can do everything well.”

Coles has 391 yards total, but Rod Gardner is an impressive second with 175 yards, including a career-high 118 yards in the Week 2 victory at Atlanta. Gardner also had a 30-yard touchdown catch against the New York Giants called back because of a holding penalty.

“He’s been overlooked a lot,” Law said.

Don’t tell Gardner that. He’s used to be the No. 1 guy, a 2001 first-round draft pick who has led the Redskins in receiving in both seasons with the team. He doesn’t begrudge Coles’ seven-year, $35 million contract, but he feels he deserves some space on the marquee.

“Laveranues is playing well,” Gardner said. “But at the same time as long as I keep performing at this level, I’m always going to get noticed. I’m always going to be a factor. You just can’t never go out there and just say, ‘L.C.’s the only one we got to stop.’ That’ll never happen.”

Gardner came up with a new way to express the contrast between his physical, possession-game style and Coles’ speed game.

“I bring all the force – he keeps finessing,” Gardner said.

Law usually has the assignment of shutting down the other team’s top receiver, but he thinks he’ll get matched up against both Coles and Gardner this week.

Assuming Law plays, that is. He’s questionable with a sprained ankle, but he knows he has to make a go of it if at all possible because the Patriots have so many other injuries on defense.

“It’s bothered me a lot,” Law said. “But how many times are you going to go out there and play 100 percent healthy as an NFL player?”

The Coles-Gardner tandem has put Patrick Ramsey near the top of the quarterback ratings. The Redskins are finally putting up the kind of numbers expected from a Steve Spurrier offense after the coach left Florida for the pros last year.

But Spurrier, noting the team’s slow-start pattern of the last two games, is the first to say that the No. 1 offense ranking doesn’t carry much weight.

“That’s probably misleading, to tell you the truth,” Spurrier said. “We’ve been behind 17, 18 points the last two games. When you’re behind, you throw more than you want to, to try to catch up.”

Notes: It turns out that CB Champ Bailey’s sore left wrist is actually a broken wrist. The fracture won’t require a cast and won’t keep Bailey from playing, but he said he expects it to bother him until he gets some rest during the bye week a month from now. Bailey also has a sprained left shoulder, and the two injuries could hamper his usual superb ability to jam receivers at the line of scrimmage. … TE Zeron Flemister is practicing again after missing two games with a hamstring injury, so the Redskins cut TE Kevin Ware and placed him back on the practice squad. OL Brad Bedell was signed. … G Dave Fiore, LB Jeremiah Trotter and DE Bruce Smith – three veterans who’ve had recent knee surgeries – sat out Thursday’s practice. Fiore’s sore right knee has keep him out of practice for two straight weeks, and Spurrier said rookie Derrick Dockery might start instead. “There’s a good chance both of them will play,” Spurrier said.

AP-ES-09-25-03 1834EDT