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At the start of the season, the big question surrounding the New England Patriots was how their offense would operate with so much turnover from last year. Their most stable group was their running backs and the consensus among fans was that the backs as a whole would be able to pick up the slack left by the departed, injured and incarcerated stars.

In the last two weeks of the regular season, the Patriots have finally found their groove running the ball and it is paving the way for a potential Super Bowl run.

In week 16, on the road against a physical Ravens team fighting for their playoff lives, the backs combined for 167 yards as a part of a 41-7 blowout. This past Sunday, on a cold, wet and miserable evening in Foxboro, LeGarrette Blount had a career day rushing for 189 yards as part of a team total 267 yards to grind out a crucial 34-20 win over the Bills that secured a first round playoff bye. After weeks of criticism for abandoning the run too often, the Patriots have unearthed a potential playoff X-Factor (without the need for an overly drawn out, complicated and boring TV show).

Leading the transformation has been Blount, a Buccaneers discard as part of a draft day trade, some ‘experts’ were calling for him to be cut in favour of Tim Tebow during training camp. After an inauspicious start where he seemed hesitant to utilise his size, Blount has found a new level of aggressiveness and he has no problem attacking the line of scrimmage now. He is listed at 250 pounds and has some superb athleticism for such a rotund running back. Having now realised what he can do with his size, Blount has taken over the lead back duties seeing more time than Stevan Ridley, who was a 1200 yard rusher just last season.

After a midseason slump which included a deactivation as punishment for fumbling, Ridley has been able to slide into a backup role behind Blount. In the last two weeks, Ridley has run for 128 yards on 27 carries as the play calling has emphasised the backfield more with a depleted passing game. After throwing the ball over 50 times against Miami (with less than 20 carries for the running backs), Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels completely changed his philosophy by trusting his backs and blockers to gain the crucial yardage. In the last two weeks, Brady has thrown the ball only 50 times with almost 70 handoffs to Blount and Ridley.

If the Patriots want to have success in the playoffs, they will need to continue to run the ball effectively. As it stands, the only weapon throwing the ball has been Julian Edelman and players of his stature have been shut out in the playoffs before (see Wes Welker last year). Danny Amendola has not been healthy since the second quarter of the season opener while Aaron Dobson appeared to re-aggrivate a foot injury last week. Kenbrell Thompkins has been horrifically inconsistent this year and the tight ends are a shadow of what they were with Gronkowski. As the weather turns colder, the best way to combat the elements is to run the ball and with the form that the Patriots running game has been in lately, there is every reason to hope they will be able to ride their workhorses all the way to the Meadowlands.