What the heck, let's put some stats into the midst of the mudslinging. I thought that the OP's "tidbit" was indeed "interesting."
So, I thought I'd compare the top rushers for the Pats with the top rushers for the other franchises that began operations in the same year as the Pats (1960) and that have survived, on the assumption that comparisons with franchises that began later would be unfair by virtue of the shorter time frame available for those franchises and that comparisons to franchises that operated in the 1940's and 1950's would be hard to interpret because the game was very different in those days. Also, I just didn't have time to analyze all 32 active franchises.
The results are interesting.
I looked at the top ten franchise rushers for the Bills, Broncos, Chargers, Chiefs, Cowboys, Jets and Oilers/Titans and compared their stats with the top ten rushers for the Pats (Curtis Martin's yards were divided between the Pats and Jests based on his time with each team).
Here's what we find:
The Average total yards gained for the other seven teams by their top ten rushers is 46,437.6 yards. The total yards gained for the Pats by their top ten rushers is 37,974 yards. So, the ten best rushers for the Pats rushed for nearly 10,000 fewer yards in total than did the average for the other teams. The top was the Cowboys, let by Smith and Dorsett, with over 61,000 yards. The low was 40,192 by the Chiefs. So, the total yards by the Pats top ten rushers is lower than the lowest of the other compared franchises.
The average number of TD's scored for those other teams by their top ten rushers was 349.5; Cowboys high at 476, Oilers/Titans low at 311. The top ten rushers in Pats franchise history scored a total of 278 TD's, once again lower than any of the other teams.
The average number of rushing attempts for those other teams by their top ten rushers was 11,088; Cowboys high at 14,554, Chargers low at 9,463. The Pats top ten rushers made 9,578 attempts.
The average Yards/Attempt for those other teams by their top 10 rushers was 4.19; Chargers high at 4.31, Jets low at 4.04. For the Pats, the average was 3.96.
Since we all know that "there are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics," we have to be careful what we conclude from this. However, the numbers suggest that the Pats best rushers tend to rush less often (lower total attempts) and less productively (lower yards/attempt and lower total yards) than have the rushers of nearly all the other teams that began operating at the same time.
However, since the proof is in the pudding (or, in this case, in the Trophy Case), I hasten to add that, of those teams, only the Cowboys (8) and Broncos (6) have been to more SB's than the Pats (5) and that only the Cowboys (5) have won more Lombardi's than the Pats (3).
So, my final conclusion is that football in the NFL is a multi-faceted game and that franchise success can not be explained by any one factor over time.
