Why have most Patriot teams had mediocre running games?

[slam]

Unsaid so far is that the Patriots have made the organization choice to maximize the pass game on offense while being good enough at the running game, and that extends to the makeup of the offensive line. The OL for the Patriots have typically been smaller and quicker than the norm. They are very good at going downfield 20 yards on a screen. They have the agility to cut pass rushers down consistently on those 1 step drop timing patterns. They're the only team I've ever seen ask their center to do a peelback 180 degree turn maneuver to transition from run blocking to pass blocking on play action plays. But they are undersized when going head to head against a man mountain DT. To have an OL be elite in both run and pass blocking you may have to invest in the line as much as the Cowboys have.

Aside from Maroney and Dillon, the RB position has been manned by later round picks (Ridley, White, Vereen) and castoffs (Blount, BJGE, Antowain Smith, Woodhead, Lewis).

It's clear that the running game is not a priority for the Patriots, and probably won't be until Brady retires or declines.

 

[mgteich]

-Every team has finite resources to deploy at offense, defense, special teams.
-Positions/groupings that require excess resources must be offset by less expensive pieces.
-In the BB era, NE has used very little premium draft capital to assemble the O line.
-Assembling the bulk of the O line via mid/late round draft picks more often than not buys a lineman with limitations....aka....decent pass blocker/ less than impressive run blocker.
-Some might argue that Brady's main strength is quick reads and quick delivery and thus NE has built their base offense around the sub 2 second passing attack ..... an offense that can't be defended in 2 seconds.
-IMO, the O line is just good enough to allow NE to implement their game plan.
-The eye test shows me the individual pieces typically lose one on one battles when the plays at the LOS get extended.
-For NE, the puzzle fits together nicely...but O line is not the team's strength.

The OL would look a lot worse if they played with a QB with average release time. Brady is about the fastest in the NFL, and this makes the OL look good.

The other side of this is that we can use much less resources on the OL, since they don't need to be top notch. The resources can be better used on other positions.

 

[chasa]

And if my sister had a penis she would be my brother.

not to get too off topic but actually now a days with the whole identifying stuff going on...

 

[NG Pats Fan]

And if my sister had a penis she would be my brother.


Besides 2004 the Patriots never really had a top notch running attack. Decent at times but never dominating.

Which is actually weird considering you have 1 of the greatest QB's to ever play the game.

But then again they never really had great RB's.. Besides Dillon everyone else has been serviceable to decent. Maroney was suppose to be but he was under whelming.

It is important for the Pats to be more balanced, they can win 1 dimensional but they are almost unbeatable when they can beat you on the ground and in the air.

Besides 2004? What about 95-97 Curtis Martin in his prime

 

[deroc5050]

Besides 2004? What about 95-97 Curtis Martin in his prime

I was referring the BB/TB era.

 

[deroc5050]

Run/Pass-Ratio of the Patriots since 2009:
2009: Run: 44.05% (21st), Pass: 55.95% (11th)
2010: Run: 47.24% (7th), Pass: 52.76% (26th)
2011: Run: 41.71% (22nd), Pass: 58.29% (10th)
2012: Run: 44.93% (13th), Pass: 54.07% (19th)
2013: Run: 42.81% (16th), Pass: 57.19% (16th)
2014: Run: 41.83% (18th), Pass: 58.17% (14th)
2015: Run: 37.85% (26th), Pass: 62.15% (7th)
2016: Run: 46.71% (5th), Pass 53.29% (28th)
Averages: 43. 39% / 56. 61%

So as you see in 2009 and from 2011 to 2014 the Pats ranked between 13th and 22nd in run-ratio, pretty average and also pretty balanced. In 2010 BJGE rushed for 1000 yards. In 2015 we couldn't run a yard because of injuries to OL and RB's. And in 2016 we had to rely on the running game early in the season because of the Brady-Ban. So i wouldn't say they weren't a balanced team because the real balance of run-pass ration in the league shape out at around 42/58 and not 50/50.

They have never been really unbalanced as far as run/pass ratio, I meant they have never really been that great at running the ball besides maybe 2001 and 2004. They have always tried to be balanced. I can't remember which year it was maybe 2009 or 2010 .. but they were so predictable.

 

[deroc5050]

not to get too off topic but actually now a days with the whole identifying stuff going on...

umm yeah I suppose lol..

 

[deroc5050]

131/10 is 13th on average which is 60th percentile, above average......

13th is just about average, like I said I just eyeballed it. A smidgen above average.

 

[oldrover]

Why might the Pats running game stats appear light?

Easy answer: Tom Brady has developed a revolutionary new handoff...

...which travels 5 yards through the air.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

While NE might not do great at accumulating rushing yards, they are quite efficient when they do run. They're usually high up the rushing DVOA charts, for example.

 

[Tony2046]

Why might the Pats running game stats appear light?

Easy answer: Tom Brady has developed a revolutionary new handoff...

...which travels 5 yards through the air.

Funny but true.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

Pats short passing game is their running game

 

[rochrist]

Blount had a good season stats wise even though his ypc were below average. In the playoffs he wasn't very good. Maroney in 2007 was below average. Green-Ellis, Ridley, Vereen were all average rushing backs.

Because it's all they needed. WHy would they invest in a running game when they want a pass blocking OL and they have the best passing game in the NFL. They do enough to keep defenses relatively honest. That's all they need to do.

 

[sb1]

The Pats roster isn't built for a top shelf running game in this league. With the GOAT GOAT'ing they don't need one right now.

 

[captain stone]

...Remember our draft position has been relatively low so getting that top tier RB is that much harder (to make it fiscally reasonable) and they rarely hit the open market (or last more than 5 years).

Where Bill took Tre Jackson in 2015, he could've had Jay Ajayi.

 

[captain stone]

The OL would look a lot worse if they played with a QB with average release time...

Bingo.

I blame the OL more than the RBs for our mediocre at best running game.

 

[maineman209]

Patriots annual rank in Rushing TDs ...

2001 - 7
2002 - 26
2003 - 24
2004 - 8
2005 - 11
2006 - 4
2007 - 5
2008 - 4
2009 - 6
2010 - 2
2011 - 3
2012 - 1
2013 - 2
2014 - 12
2015 - 11
2016 - 5

Yup. "Mediocre."

(SMH)

 

[captain stone]

If one considers that most of those rushing TDs start inside the 5-yard line (if not inside the 2), then those "rankings" don't look nearly as impressive as you make them out to be.
What those numbers firstly tell me is that Brady hasn't vultured nearly as many passing TDs from that distance as PayaTon Manning did. (He probably made up his mind never to depend on rushing TDs ever again after witnessing the Pats' goal-line stand in Indy in 2003.)

 

[QuantumMechanic]

If one considers that most of those rushing TDs start inside the 5-yard line (if not inside the 2), then those "rankings" don't look nearly as impressive as you make them out to be.
What those numbers firstly tell me is that Brady hasn't vultured nearly as many passing TDs from that distance as PayaTon Manning did. (He probably made up his mind never to depend on rushing TDs ever again after witnessing the Pats' goal-line stand in Indy in 2003.)

Actually, he absolutely has. In fact, Brady is the all-time vulture king!

I just did a search for all-time (post-merger) TD passes of 2 yards or less in the regular season. Brady is the all-time leader with 71 such passes. Favre is in second place with 62 and Goober is in third place with 61.

Brady is even more of a vulture once you look at percentages. In fact, his vulture rate is 4.3 percentage points (38%!) higher than Goober's.

Vulture TD as percentage of TD passes
Brady 71/456 = 15.6%
Favre 62/508 = 12.2%
Goober 61/539 = 11.3%

Vulture TD as percentage of completions
Brady 71/5244 = 1.35%
Goober 61/6125 = 1.00%
Favre 62/6300 = 0.98%

Vulture TD as percentage of attempts
Brady 71/ 8224 = 0.86%
Goober 61/ 9380 = 0.65%
Favre 62/10169 = 0.61%

 

[QuantumMechanic]

And if you look at only 1yd TD passes Brady still is the vulture king though not by as big of a margin:
Brady 35/456 = 7.7%
Favre 37/508 = 7.3%
Goober 38/539 = 7.1%