Pats' depth at running back the difference against Bills

The injured players New England had to put on the shelf for the duration of the season, more than a dozen in all, have been greatly missed.

Two of the injured players who came back, though, were the ones who saved the Patriots’ season.

LaMont Jordan and Sammy Morris each missed time with injuries this season; Morris missed three games with a knee injury, and Jordan missed a month and a half with a calf injury. But the two rushed for a combined 214 yards in a rout of the Oakland Raiders and 166 yards in another pounding of the Arizona Cardinals last week.

That meant the Patriots had three running backs, when you throw in the ever-versatile Kevin Faulk, to pound against the Bills’ defense in a game in which neither team threw a pass into the wind in the first half.

The Bills, meanwhile, had Fred Jackson and no one else. Jackson rushed for 103 yards in the first half but almost nothing in the second half as the New England defense seized control of a game the Patriots had to win. Part of it had to do with the score. Part of it had to do with the fact that Jackson, even up against a retirement-home linebacking corps, couldn't do it all by himself.

When the Bills needed to convert on fourth-and-1 in the fourth quarter, it wasn’t Jackson who had the ball. Jackson was barely a decoy. Instead, Trent Edwards missed Josh Reed with a pass into the flat, and with that, the game effectively was over.

But the Patriots had Jordan (38 yards on eight first-half carries) and Morris (29 yards on 11 carries) still fresh and Faulk still available. That paid off in a big way in the second half. Morris finished with 84 rushing yards; he had 55 yards on 13 carries after halftime. Jordan finished with 64 rushing yards. Faulk caught an eight-yard pass for a first down.

The depth of the Patriots' corps of running backs decided this game. How else could Morris have been fresh enough to run straight through Bills safety Donte Whitner on the final play of the third quarter?

This wasn’t just a good season for the Patriots’ run game. This was a historic season for the Patriots’ run game. Not since 1985 had the Patriots rushed for this many yards; not since 1981 had the Patriots rushed for this many touchdowns.

When Tom Brady went down, it felt like the season was over. When Laurence Maroney went down, it felt like the Patriots would have to survive with a dominant pass game (in the hands of star receivers Randy Moss and Wes Welker) and a patchwork run game.

Instead, the team won 11 games and would have earned a playoff bid if just one of any number of things had gone their way. And without Morris, Jordan, Faulk and even BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who rushed for at least 50 yards three times after Morris and Jordan went down, this team wouldn't have had anywhere close to 11 wins.