New England Patriots Running Game Has Vanished

By Matthew Rewinski | Jan 24, 2016

Dec 6, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots running back LeGarrette Blount (29) carries the ball as Philadelphia Eagles linebacker DeMeco Ryans (59) chases during the second quarter at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Stew Milne-USA TODAY Sports /

The New England Patriots running game has vanished. Can they continue to win without it?

Sing it with me to the tune of the only good song the Black Eyed Peas ever did, people: “Where is the run?”

Nostalgia for a simpler time when the Black Eyed Peas weren’t singing about 2000-and-late aside, there’s bad news for people nostalgic for the days when the Patriots were pounding the rock with Corey Dillon, Benjarvus Green-Ellis, or heck, even Stevan Ridley:

The Patriots run game might as well have been abducted by aliens. It’s not that it’s on-again-off-again, like, say, the Packers and running back/Chinese food enthusiast Eddie Lacy: the Patriots have only rushed for 100+ yards in six games this year, and that’s including the postseason. That’s six games out of sixteen regular-season games, which, if you’re good at math, or just ask Siri, means that the Pats are only cracking 100 yards on the ground in barely 1/3 of their games.

And out of those six 100+ yard games, New England only rushed for more than 116 yards in two of them. The Patriots had their best two rushing games of the year against the Jacksonville Jaguars, when they rushed for 125 yards, and the Washington Dan Snyder is a Tool squad, when the Patriots opened up a can and ran the ball for 161 yards.

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Look at these rushing totals for the 2015 season, unless you just ate something tasty and want it to stay in your stomach:

Week 1 vs Pittsburgh: 80 rush yards

Week 2 vs Buffalo: 56 rush yards

Week 3 vs Jacksonville: 125 rush yards

Week 4: Bye (this is a good place for a dad joke about rushing for 0 yards)

Week 5 vs Dallas: 109 rush yards

Week 6 vs Indianapolis: 116 rush yards

Week 7 vs New York Jets: 16 rush yards

Week 8 vs Miami: 95 rush yards

Week 9 vs Washington: 161 rush yards

Week 10 vs New York Giants: 77 rush yards

Week 11 vs Buffalo: 85 rush yards

Week 12 vs Denver: 39 rush yards

Week 13 vs Philadelphia: 103 rush yards

Week 14 vs Houston: 116 rush yards

Week 15 vs Tennessee: 93 rush yards

Week 16 vs New York Jets: 63 rush yards

Week 17 vs Miami: 70 rush yards

And of course, last weekend against Kansas City, the Patriots racked up 38 rushing yards.

That, according to NFL.com stats, is an average of 87.8 yards per game. That is also 30^th in the NFL.

Out of 32 teams.

At 14 rushing touchdowns on the season, they average less than one rushing touchdown per game, and that’s counting Tom Brady’s quarterback sneaks in the red zone.

The knee-jerk reaction is to blame season-ending injuries to Kevin Faulk 2.0 running back Dion Lewis and one-man wrecking crew LeGarrette Blount, but like most easy excuses, it doesn’t hold up. Dion Lewis was placed on IR on November 9^th, which was the day after Week 9, and Blount went to IR on December 16^th, which was Week 15.

In other words, the ground game has been inconsistent, and truthfully, mostly ineffective, regardless of who’s carrying the ball. It could be Lewis, Blount, Bolden, Jackson, or White, and it hasn’t really made a huge difference. Put it this way: the team that got infamous for plugging and playing running backs seemingly at random is plugging and playing them now, except it’s not working this year.

On the Patriots run/pass discrepancy that’s so lopsided that it really should be dooming the team, the Boston Herald’s Kerry Byrne noted that New England is succeeding despite one of the worst run games in the league:

“The Patriots are the first and only team in NFL history to consistently win games while showing utter contempt for the ground game. The Patriots last year, for example, beat both the Ravens and Seahawks in the playoffs despite throwing the ball 50 times in each game.”

“May seem like no big deal. But 50-plus pass attempts are normally a sign of desperation and defeat. For the Patriots, they’re a sign of vanity and victory.”

“The Tom Brady Patriots are 4-1 in postseason play when attempting 50+ passes. Every other QB in NFL playoff history is a combined 3-28 with 50-plus passes.”

“That’s right: Brady boasts four 50-plus-pass-attempt wins in his career; every other QB ever has three.”

“If we include regular season, Brady is the all-time leader in 50-attempt games (24), 50-attempt wins (17) and 50-attempt winning percentage (.708). Nobody is even close. Hall of Famers Warren Moon (5-5) and Dan Marino (5-11) are tied for second with just five 50-attempt wins. Manning is 4-13 when throwing the ball 50-plus times in a game.”

Final question: even if the Patriots wanted to run the ball against Denver this weekend, would it even matter? The Broncos are a brick wall against the run, giving up the 3^rd fewest yards in the league (1,337) in the regular season and ranking 1^st in the NFL in yards per attempt at 3.3.

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Frankly, that’s a stupid good run defense. They’re the only run defense in the league that, if opposing running backs get the average rushing yards per attempt that the Broncos typically give up on three straight carries, it still won’t be enough for a first down. Not even the Jets and the Seahawks (3.6 yards per attempt), both league-wrecking defenses in their own right, can hang their hat on that.

The Patriots running the ball against the Broncos might not be, as the Joker put it, an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. It’s more like a half-court shot.

Then again, Tom Brady sure did look fresh as lettuce against the Chiefs, so they might not have to.

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