Blount, Ridley and Vereen – Ghidorah the three headed monster

[Brady6]

Through injuries and adversity Blount, Ridley and Vereen combined for 2280 yards from scrimmage and 18 touchdowns. If you take into account Vereen missed half the games and Ridley had some serious issues with fumbling at midseason those numbers are impressive. I firmly believe the Ghidorah in our backfield combined with Brady can lead us to the Super bowl.

• Ridley – 14 games played, 835 yards from scrimmage and 7 touchdowns.
• Blount – 16 games played, 810 yards from scrimmage and 7 touchdowns.
• Vereen – 8 games played, 635 yards from scrimmage and 4 touchdowns.

The AFC playoff teams are not elite defenses especially against the run. Average yards per carry allowed:

• Chargers – rank 27th
• Chiefs – rank 26th
• Colts – rank 25th
• Bengals – rank 15th
• Broncos – rank 10th

I cannot remember a time we had a better stable of young runners in our backfield. On top of that our offensive line is the #1 run blocking line in the NFL.

I am fired up for some smash mouth football :rocker:

 

[Archeryaddict12]

Get the run game established and just smash teams. Then go play action with Tom and carve the opponent up.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

I am deeply concern about fumbling, will be holding my breath in the playoffs.

 

[Uncle Rico]

And if you have to go down to #4, you could do worse than Bolden.

 

[hambone1818]

I am deeply concern about fumbling, will be holding my breath in the playoffs.

Yeah, this...while I love what the run game has become for this team, I do worry that an emphasis on the run might bite them in the ass once or twice. Four fumbles yesterday and you could blame the weather but Buffalo only fumbled once. I'd like to see a balanced run-pass offense in the playoffs, especially with Vereen being healthy play the possession game, short throws to Amendola/Vereen/Edelman with a healthy dose of Ridley/Blount.

All that said I do love what the Pats run game has become, they're so dangerous because on any given play you could have the dynamic pass-catching threat in Vereen, the shifty and strong Ridley or the bowling ball Blount, who's gotten better and better and is now much more than the late-game option he seemed to be at the start of the season.

 

[oldrover]

We got all our fumbling out of our system yesterday. (he said, hopefully)

 

[patsinthesnow]

Is it a homer statement to say we have three top 25 RBs in our backfield?

 

[Wax Frog]

Does this mean Edelman is Anguirus? :nerd:

 

[VJCPatriot]

I remember a few years back how the Patriots RBs were old and mostly broken, we had -- Sammy Morris, Kevin Faulk, Fred Taylor, Woodhead and BJGE.

Luckily in 2011 we totally revamped the RB corps, prepping for what I anticipated to be a stronger running game by drafting Vereen in the 2nd and Ridley in the 3rd. In 2012 we added Bolden as a UDFA. Fast forward to 2013, we also added Blount in a little heralded trade involving a 7th round pick and Jeff Demps.

And at the end of the year look at us now, #9 rushing offense in the entire NFL and tied for 2nd in total rushing TDs. I think we've arrived in time for the playoffs with a robust, smashmouth running game that can hopefully take us deep into the postseason!

Oh and we have the #3 scoring offense in the NFL as well. Despite the slow start with our rookie receivers learning the offense. This team has really grown and I'm proud of what they've become. I just hope we can take that next step and claim the ultimate hardware in 2013!

 

[mitsudriver]

Surprising stat for me. Blount has only carried the ball 579 times in his 4 year career. So 27 may seem older in rb years but that's not really a lot of wear and tear if you ask me. He also didn't get that many carries in college. What with suspensions and all

 

[nabwong]

I'm not worried for our rbs. Just hope that our line can stay healthy.

 

[signbabybrady]

I'm not worried for our rbs. Just hope that our line can stay healthy.

Much agreed but the good news is we have two weeks to heal up and the injuries have shown some adequate depth. Gotta be a little worried about Mankins ankle but I suspect minus Volmer we will have our starters in 2 weeks and hopefully Sviteck is healed up and Kline has proved himself giving us 2 adequate back ups.


Clock Killin Ghidorah


Also to be noted should be our Defense which has gotten closer to early season form again now with the Silver Slugger plugging the middle on the line we are not as weak against the run as we were right when we lost Kelly and Vince. And we have a secondary that while also being banged up can match up against anybody in the league.

Solid defense, More than solid run game, TB, and BB gives me more than enough to feel really confident about our chances.

Obviously a long way to go but with everything this team has been thru and the way it looks coming out the other side and this team would seem to more resemble the teams from the early oughts than the ones from 07 on.

 

[nabwong]

Much agreed but the good news is we have two weeks to heal up and the injuries have shown some adequate depth. Gotta be a little worried about Mankins ankle but I suspect minus Volmer we will have our starters in 2 weeks and hopefully Sviteck is healed up and Kline has proved himself giving us 2 adequate back ups.


Clock Killin Ghidorah

True. The backups got some much needed real game experience and it'll give them a lot of confidence. Man, I can't wait for the playoffs.

 

[Ive_Killed_People]

Imagine if we had 2007 Mothra and 2011 Gronkzilla to go with Ghidorah. But we can only take it one Gamera at a time.

 

[Ive_Killed_People]

Does this mean Edelman is Anguirus? :nerd:

And Wes was Gorosaurus in the playoffs (T-Rex arms)

 

[varjao]

This offense is getting a good momentum, I hope the passing game get a improvement on the 20+ yards plays and efficiency on the red zone.

I'm worried about Talib and Dennard, apparently both are playing at 50% of their capabilities

 

[RobertWeathers]

This offense is getting a good momentum, I hope the passing game get a improvement on the 20+ yards plays and efficiency on the red zone.

I'm worried about Talib and Dennard, apparently both are playing at 50% of their capabilities

Talib is close to being back to the level he was before the hip injury which was pretty darn good. He was targeted only once on Sunday...no catches.

Dennard is another story. With Ryan clearly playing well, if AD can give them some good snaps in a dime D, they'll be a better team for it.

 

[BillyD123]

Seeing LB running so darn hard throughout the game I had to text my pal with
"Blount Force Trauma!"
IMHO this is the best group of running backs as we've had since 04.

Go Pats!

 

[shmessy]

Would certainly make sense that they try to call at least 1/3 of the plays to be runs, unlike what they did in 3 of their 4 losses.

The Miami loss was particularly galling. All the RB's were healthy, the offense was missing both Dobson and Thompkins, Miami had an elite pass rush - yet a mediocre run defense........and the Pats Pass-Run ratio was 55-22.

Who needed automatic home field advantage throughout the playoffs anyway?