We saw that after his injury last year Maroney really struggled to dust off the rust from not playing and it was in the hands of Corey to do the ground work and keep the team winning and away from being too 1 dimentional.
While this offense is awesome right now in the mild weather and looking air coryell-like, I wonder if Morris is out for a longer period and if Maroney is once again slow to progress after his injury can we continue to be as dominant once the harsh weather starts to arrive?
Remember there will be very few nice and comfortable games all winter as the Pats will stay in the eastern part of the US where it will probably be cold and snowy so I just wonder if this offense remains 1 dimentional will there be trouble down the road where we will HAVE to have those grind em out games to keep the opposing D honest? - The running game really becomes an even more important issue right after Thanksgiving,I hope we have a productive RB situation by then and Morris and Maroney plays as they are expected to do in this offense and that is just to be a threat to the increased blitz schemes team will continue to throw at the Pats.
The running game in the winter months is definately a worry IMO
Besides I don't want to see Brady throwing 40+ passes every game,It puts him in danger every time he steps back especially with Blitzing teams good at it like Pitt,Baltimore and the Giants ect:,I would love the ground game to be a big insurance policy in december and beyond - I hope we have it because I don't think we will be putting up high 30s and lower 40s scores once the weather sours,We will have close games where the running game becomes crucial.
There's a lot of "If" in that post. "if Maroney is slow to progress", and "If Morris is out for an extended period" will the Patriots be able to keep winning with a "one dimensional offense".
OK, now I can see where you're coming from but why exectly would the Patriots offense become a struggling one dinensional unit if Maroney or Morris aren't working out in the backfield?
The Patriots could use Faulk, Evans or Eckel and would likely sign someone else if they started to really struggle in the rushing game. I don't think Faulk or any other RB's would likely be quite as effective as Maroney and Morris but I think they'd still get the job done considering NE's passing attack.
Now, if the Patriots offense were to become one demensional I still believe they could win as Brady is well versed at using short passes in place of a rushing attack. Also, this would have to be a new development only brought on by injury as the Patriots to this point have rushed only two fewer times than they've passed and even after Morris went down in Dallas they're still ranked 7th in rushing.
Another thing to consider is the strength of the Patriots passing attack. Teams are already having to focus on stopping Brady, Moss, Stallworth, Welker, and Watson which is going to create space for rushers no matter who's in the backfield. The Colts RB's enjoy a somewhat simular situation by the way.
I'm not sure Maroney will have trouble knocking the rust off once he's back out their, nor do I believe Sammy will be out any longer than 4-6 weeks.
Also, the first part of your arguement is factually incorrect. Maroney had some nice rushes against the Jags & Titans last year in his first two games back from injury.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/gamelog?statsId=7770&year=2006
