LANDOVER, Md. -- In the official play-by-play of Sunday's game between the Patriots and Redskins, there are three plays that don't look all that impressive, but they were three plays that turned the tide at FedEx Field.
Coming out of the locker room, with the Patriots leading 12-7 and having trouble finding any kind of momentum offensively, Josh McDaniels turned to his running game once again.
The numbers showed that the Patriots were far more efficient throwing than they were running through the season's first month. When they did run, they were often better off with smaller backs and spread-formation looks than they were with a we're-going-to-run-it-down-your-throat-and-we-don't-care-if-you-know-it's-coming approach -- even though the latter was what helped carry them to Lombardi Trophy No. 6 last season.
Yet with an offensive line that was having trouble protecting Tom Brady, and with a banged-up receiver corps, McDaniels wanted to run it. They were determined to reverse the trends they'd established through September. Clearly.
Sony Michel took the first play of the second half for a two-yard run. He took the second play of the second half for a rush of three. After converting on a third-down pass to James White . . . McDaniels went right back to the run.
It finally found some traction.
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Here are the three plays: Michel ran for five; he ran for 11 more on the next snap; then Brandon Bolden went for four. Those three runs combined to give the Patriots more rushing yards than they had in the entire first half, when on their first drive they opted not to hand off once.
It's as if the Patriots said, "Well, we haven't been able to run for four weeks, but we can't throw today so we might as well give the ground-and-pound thing a shot."
It worked. By the time they'd gone up on the Skins 33-7, they'd rushed for an average of 6.8 yards per carry. They rushed for 2.7 yards per carry through the game's first 30 minutes.
The floodgates opened for New England's offensive line and backs after the halftime adjustments they'd made. Before the game got out of hand, Michel put together runs of 6, 7, 12, 14 and 25 yards. He finished with 91 yards on 16 carries (5.7 yards per carry) after averaging 2.8 yards per carry on the season through Week 4.
If that's how the Patriots run game is going to look moving forward, those three plays to start the second half at FedEx Field won't be just a turning point for what happened on Sunday. They could end up being a turning point for their entire season.
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