FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Most NFL teams don’t change their entire offensive philosophy on the fly this late in the season as the Patriots have over the past month.
Then again, Bill Belichick isn’t like most coaches.
Because of Belichick’s long-running openness to the unorthodox, New England has opened up its running game since late December to the point the Patriots — with Tom Brady at quarterback, mind you — suddenly look like a 1960s throwback.
It’s also not a stretch to think the Patriots might be sitting home instead of preparing for Sunday’s AFC Championship in Denver if Brady hadn’t signed off on putting New England’s fortunes in the hands of LeGarrette Blount and Stevan Ridley instead.
Brady said Thursday when asked about New England’s newfound reputation as a running team, “There are times when there are good looks to run it and that’s what you have to try to do. You’re always trying to figure out at quarterback where the soft spot in the defense is.”
The soft spot for the Patriots’ opponents the past three games has been run defense, especially inside.
Blount in particular and New England in general have run wild in that time span, most notably with 234 rushing yards and a mind-boggling six rushing touchdowns last week in a 43-22 rout of the Colts at home in the divisional round.
Blount, the troubled, undrafted Oregon product who was cast off by the Titans and Buccaneers before having his career reborn with the Patriots, was the star with 166 yards and four touchdowns on 24 carries. The bruising back’s day was highlighted by a 73-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter.
Ridley wasn’t a highlight reel like Blount, but still ran for two touchdowns, while adding 52 yards on 14 carries. The Patriots also still can call on another pair of capable young backs in Shane Vereen and Brandon Bolden if the Blount-Ridley combination isn’t producing.
How committed are the Patriots to running the ball? Brady’s 75 pass attempts over the past three games are the fewest in a three-game span in his entire Hall of Fame career.
“The offense is definitely clicking,” Blount said this week. “We’ve been getting hot at the right time of the year. Stevan, Vereen and Bolden — all of us are productive backs. We bring something different to the table, and I feel like they’re just trying to get the ball in our hands a little more.”
The switch originated after a 24-20 loss on Dec. 15 to the Dolphins, when the Patriots ran for just 96 yards while having Brady throw 55 passes.
It was the third consecutive game in which New England managed fewer than 100 yards on the ground, and the Patriots struggled in all three despite going 2-1.
Belichick had offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels commit to the run the following week at Baltimore, and the result was 142 yards on the ground in a surprising 41-7 rout.
The Patriots have been running and running and running ever since.
“We’re getting plenty of looks the past three weeks where it hasn’t been great to run it, and we’ve run it anyway and we’ve gained a lot of yards,” Brady said.
Don’t be surprised if Belichick abandons the run just as quickly as he embraced it this weekend, though. Denver’s run defense is its strength, ranking seventh in the NFL this season.
But even if the Patriots suddenly become a passing team again, their confidence in the run game has skyrocketed recently.
“We’ve become a pretty good run team,” Brady said.