FOXBOROUGH -- The Patriots have had two of their better rushing games each of the last two weeks -- 143 yards against the Bills and 175 yards against the Bengals.
They have run for over 140 yards just three times all season and two of them have come in the last two weeks.
So, what's been the difference?
"I think early success in doing it and continuing on doing it throughout the course of the game, especially at the end when you need to it it -- I think those things have been something we've always strived to do around here," offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia said Friday. "I think that has manifested itself in the last couple of weeks. It's how we love to play. We like balance. We've always liked balance in our offense."
He added: "I think that is a big part of it and then confidence. 'Oh yeah, OK. This is going to be alright. This is going to be alright.' I think that is as much as anything. Look, Josh (McDaniels) has a lot on his plate. If you saw what he has in his hands to call plays, I couldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. It makes his game a lot easier if he can say, 'OK, I can set this up with that. I can do this to make sure this is going to be alright.' When you have that going for you it's a lot easier to call the game.
"Like I said, we like balance in the offense. We strive for it every week and hopefully we will have continued balanced in our offense here this week."
Scarnecchia is right about the balance as the 414 total yards against Buffalo last week marked just the second time since Week 7 the unit has eclipsed the 400-yard mark.
Specific to the run game, some might say Elandon Roberts has been a huge difference-maker, but Scarnecchia seemed to indicate he's just doing the best he can -- although it is helping the offense keep to what it likes to do.
"We don't have a fullback. We have Elandon. He's our fullback," he said. "Bless his heart, he's doing everything we ask him to do. Thank goodness for him because we like to have a fullback in front of our backs and we haven't been able to do that. He's been so good about taking it and embracing this job that we've asked him to do — albeit on a smaller scale than certainly (James Develin) would have done, but we're happy that we have him. … We'll continue to use him and it will be very much in the same role."
The Patriots will look to continue to run the ball well this week against the Dolphins and on into the playoffs.
