Morris danced an awful lot in the backfield on Sunday too, is he awful now?
Reality: a RB who is asked to carry the ball a lot of times in this offense will find, in many cases, that he's being met in the backfield. So he 'dances'.
Morris' carries against Denver:
1-10-NE 38 (11:00) S.Morris right tackle to NE 43 for 5 yards (K.Peterson).
2-5-NE 43 (10:21) S.Morris up the middle to NE 44 for 1 yard (J.Williams).
1-10-DEN 15 (8:20) S.Morris right end to DEN 15 for no gain (A.Davis).
2-10-DEN 15 (7:36) S.Morris right guard to DEN 8 for 7 yards (B.Dawkins, R.Hill).
1-10-DEN 43 (5:18) S.Morris right tackle to DEN 33 for 10 yards (R.Ayers).
1-10-DEN 33 (4:40) S.Morris right tackle to DEN 35 for -2 yards (B.Dawkins; K.Peterson).
2-4-NE 29 (1:44) S.Morris up the middle to NE 32 for 3 yards (R.Fields).
3-1-NE 32 (1:08) S.Morris right end to NE 32 for no gain (D.Williams).
1-10-NE 41 (11:09) S.Morris up the middle to NE 44 for 3 yards (D.Williams).
1-10-NE 15
22) S.Morris left tackle to NE 15 for no gain (A.Goodman).
2-6-NE 30 (13:59) S.Morris right tackle to NE 33 for 3 yards (V.Holliday).
1-10-NE 39 (12:20) S.Morris up the middle to NE 45 for 6 yards (K.Peterson).
2-4-NE 45 (11:46) S.Morris left guard to 50 for 5 yards (W.Woodyard).
1-10-50 (11:07) S.Morris up the middle to DEN 47 for 3 yards (B.Dawkins).
2-6-NE 25 (4:37) (Shotgun) S.Morris up the middle to NE 28 for 3 yards (W.Woodyard).
1-10-NE 30 (2:27) S.Morris left end to NE 49 for 19 yards (J.Williams).
1-10-NE 49 (2:00) (Shotgun) S.Morris up the middle to DEN 49 for 2 yards (W.Woodyard). FUMBLES
Ok, so let's parse those 17 carries down a little:
Fumbles: 1
Carries for a loss: 1
Carries for no gain:3
Carries for 1-2 yards: 1
Carries for 3-4 yards: 5
Carries for 5-6 yards: 3
Carries for 7-9 yards: 1
Carries for 10+ yards: 2
So, just to review, Morris had:
5 carries for a loss, fumble, or no gain
6 carries for 1-4 yards
4 carries for 5-9 yards
2 carries for 10+ yards
What immediately jumped out at me was how strikingly this resembled the typical stat line for Laurence Maroney as a starter. Obviously I don't want to draw too broad conclusions from such a small sample size, but it's one more data point among many that suggests that the offensive line may be the common cause behind the high number of negative plays. Anecdotally, Patriots' RBs sure seem to get hit behind the LOS a lot more than other teams' RBs.
In short, everything that we love to rip on Maroney for, Morris did the same thing when put in Maroney's position on Sunday. He got hit behind the line, he danced, and a lot of negative plays resulted. Yet nobody's said a thing about it because it's not fashionable to rip on Morris. Which is fine--I like Morris--but it's definitely not fair.