In his previous five seasons, Patterson averaged 8.8 carries/yr, most of those on sweeps, end-arounds, etc. He's never had more than 13 carries in a season. He had 10 carries last night alone, and now has 17 in just half a season with the Pats.
I thought he did okay, considering. What mostly made it work was the play design, plus Patterson's athleticism, determination and strength. But I also think using him was mostly experimental.
Patterson doesn't seem to possess the techniques of a "real" RB. He runs too upright, doesn't have the right kind of shuffle-step/stutter step for into-the-line work, etc. He also doesn't appear to have the vision for the cutback lane in the phonebooth, or the cut/burst/timing to take advantage. He DOES have versions of those techniques and abilities that work very well in the open field (receptions, returns), though. And, I think he could successfully adapt enough of that over time to be consistently at least adequate in certain situations.
I don't think it's anywhere close to realistic to think that he'll be a regular up-the-middle contributor out of the backfield. However, I think Patterson was sufficiently successful in establishing himself last night for McD to be able use him under similar circumstances as at least a misdirect later in the season and in the playoffs - which as probably the whole point of the experiment.
WRT Barner, I think he would've run the ball more successfully last night, but Patterson's first "test" attempts were good enough to keep it going for awhile, instead of bringing Barner in. IOW, had Patterson totally face-planted on his first couple attempts, we might've seen a lot more of Barner.
Anyway, once Michel is healthy, and after (if?) Burkhead comes back from IR, assuming that the Pats keep Barner, they'll be back to a full house in the RB room, with Patterson filling the Bolden role, more or less.
