New England Patriots - NESN.com
The Patriots’ rushing attack held up fine Sunday without Rhamondre Stevenson.
New England’s top back missed the 24-23 win over the Atlanta Falcons with a toe injury. He was ruled out days before the weekend, so it long was expected that TreVeyon Henderson and Terrell Jennings would see increased roles.
Both made good use of the uptick in responsibilities. The rookie Henderson paced the team with 55 yards rushing across 14 carries, adding 32 yards receivinging on four receptions.
Jennings recorded the lone touchdown on the ground, finishing with 35 yards on 11 carries. He had one catch for nine yards.
“Yeah, they ran hard,” Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel said after the game, via a team-provided transcript. “We had some openings I wish we would have been able to pop a few more. But we moved them and we get on the second level and felt like it was okay. Could have been better. Really just — we get disjointed a few times. Too many seconds and longs, too many times we put ourselves in long yardage, but we converted. We were good on 3rd down, even with that.
“So again, the run game, and those guys will complement each other. Backs ran hard and took care of the ball, and then we had a few perimeter plays. We’ll just try to figure out what gives us the best chance each and every week to win the game.”
That the Patriots gave Jennings the ball 11 times and targeted him in the air is a sign that he’s earned considerable trust out of Vrabel. That’s no small feat for a second-year pro who went undrafted.
“I mean, he’s run hard. He’s run hard in five-minute. He’s a physical back,” Vrabel said of the Florida A&M product. “Those guys rotated most of the game. And TreVeyon helped us win, and so did Terrell, trying to get the ball to everybody in the rotation. Just in that situation, I think, where Josh was going to go with some inside runs there at the end, just get a little bigger back in there.
“Excited to keep moving forward with these guys and get Rhamondre back as soon as he can get back.”
