[T]hat’s the real surprise about this version of New England’s offense. They’ve been using aspects and variants of the spread offense since 2007, but they haven’t had a running game like this since Corey Dillon gained 1,635 yards in the 2004 season – not coincidentally, the last season in which the Patriots ended their campaign with a Super Bowl championship.
It’s a huge improvement for a team that averaged just 110.3 yards per game – this year, they’ve pushed that number up to 165.4.