If you’re looking for reasons why the future is still bright in New England this would be a good place to start for the offense…
The Patriots ran the ball 523 times during the 2012 regular season – the highest number of carries for a New England team since the 2004 team ran the ball 524 times over the course of the regular season. There was simply no comparison between the 2011 and 2012 running attacks: In the 2011 regular season, the Patriots had 438 carries, 1,764 yards, 4.0 yards per carry and 18 touchdowns. In the 2012 regular season, those numbers jumped to 523 carries, 2,184 yards, 4.2 yards per carry and 25 touchdowns. That’s an increase of six carries per game (from an average of 27 to 33) and 27 yards per game (from 110 yards per game to 137 yards per game), both of which represent sizable increases, particularly in this era of spread offenses. As a group, New England was able to hit 500 carries and 2,100 rushing yards and maintain an average of better than four yards per carry for the third time in the Bill Belichick era.