New England Patriots - NESN.com
No block. No rock.
It’s a mentality that has been instilled into players from coaches for literal generations, and things are no different at One Patriot Place.
New England Patriots rookie running back TreVeyon Henderson found out the hard way during Sunday’s comeback victory over the Miami Dolphins.
Henderson was roughed up during the second game of his career, finishing with 40 yards from scrimmage on five total touches — with his three offensive holding penalties being enough to all but drop him from the backfield rotation during the second half.
The Patriots were so worried about his performance, in fact, they pulled him from a play specifically designed for… well, him.
Rhamondre Stevenson’s career-long catch-and-run from Drake Maye, which set up a go-ahead touchdown in the third quarter, was actually meant to be run with the rookie running back.
“We had a similar play this week in practice, but it was with TreVeyon,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel explained on Monday, per WEEI. “We had two brutal plays to start the day… It was a good reminder of how we want to practice is how we want to play, and we can’t let things snowball on us.”
Vrabel didn’t come out and audibly say that Henderson’s trio of penalties were the reason he was replaced by Stevenson, but we’re all smart enough to use context clues.
Henderson received just two touches following his final penalty, which in the middle of a drive where he was the third running back to take the field. Stevenson, on the other hand, accounted for more yards than anyone in the contest, while Antonio Gibson kept the club alive with organization’s first kickoff return touchdown in two seasons.
New England will obviously circle back and feature their second-round rookie, but he better get that pass-protection down if he hopes for extended opportunities.
