FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Balance.

It’s what gymnasts need on the beam. It’s what checkbooks need to stay in the black. It’s what the New England Patriots need to be successful on offense.

While the NFL may be in an era of high-flying offenses, with rules favoring gun-slinging quarterbacks and speedy receivers, the New England Patriots are the perfect example of why the running game should not be ignored.

When the Patriots lost their opener in Miami 33-20, Tom Brady threw 56 passes and the Patriots ran the ball only 20 times. In last Sunday’s 30-7 victory over the Minnesota Vikings, Brady threw 22 passes and the Patriots ran the ball 37 times, with Stevan Ridley gaining 101 yards on 25 carries.

That last stat is particularly significant because since 2000 – the beginning of the Bill Belichick era – the Patriots are 38-1 when they have a running back gain at least 100 yards. They have won their last 25 games with a 100-yard rusher, the only loss coming back in 2004.

Ridley seemed particularly impressed when he was told about that statistic Wednesday.

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“That’s crazy,” he said. “That’s the type of balance we need.”

Maybe they need Brady to throw more than 22 times, but it’s obvious they don’t need him to throw 56 times. The Patriots are 1-5 in games in which Brady throws at least 55 passes. Interestingly, the last two losses have come in Miami, on Dec. 15, 2013, and two weeks ago in the season opener.

When Brady throws the ball 50 or more times, New England is 10-7, including three overtime wins. Nine of those games have come since the start of the 2012 season.

The game has obviously changed, but it appears the Patriots need to make sure they don’t neglect the run.

“I just think the biggest thing is for us to stay balanced,” said Ridley. “I just know when we have a balanced attack we’re better as an offense. And that’s what we’re striving for. But it’s so early in the season, we don’t have the kinks worked out right now … we’re just trying to figure it out as a team.”

The offensive line still is unsettled, though it played better last week against the Vikings than it did against the Dolphins. And Ridley took that as a positive sign.

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“From Miami to Minnesota, they made a drastic improvement,” he noted. “We’re going to keep relying on each other and leaning on each other, and I think at the end of the year we’re going to be OK.”

The Patriots’ running game should be on full display Sunday against the Oakland Raiders in New England’s home opener at 1 p.m. at Gillette Stadium. The Raiders are giving up 200 rushing yards per game – worst in the NFL.

“We just haven’t done a good enough job of stopping the run,” said Raiders Coach Dennis Allen. “We’ve got to do a better job of that.”

One of the biggest differences between the Patriots’ opening loss and their win last week was the way they kept running the ball. Against Miami, New England attempted just six running plays in the second half. Against Minnesota, the Patriots ran the ball 19 times for 96 yards in the second half, with Ridley picking up 72 yards.

“It’s good that they stuck with me late in the game, but really that’s the coach’s call,” he said. “However I get them, I just go out there and run hard.”

He added that it was obvious New England’s offensive line was controlling Minnesota’s defensive line in the second half. “We felt good about how we were attacking them toward the end, and that’s how we were moving the ball,” said Ridley. “Some days it’s going to be through the air, some days it’s going to be on the ground.”

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That’s the thing about this offense, Ridley stressed. It would be silly to simply employ one aspect of it with so many skilled players.

“We showed what we can do (running the ball),” he said. “We know what our quarterback can do and what our receivers can do, so we can definitely get it done through the air when we have to.

“But we’re working on this ground game right now and eventually, in these upcoming weeks, we’ll have a balanced attack going into every game. That’s when it makes a defense hard to stop us.”

When Belichick talks about being balanced, he doesn’t mean just between running and throwing.

“I think offensively we could certainly stand to get a lot more balance into our attack overall, period,” he said. “We didn’t have it in the run-pass ratio in Miami and we didn’t really have enough of it in the passing game (against Minnesota), or really for Miami for that matter.

“We have a lot of good players. We have to be more effective utilizing all of them.”

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For instance, while Tom Brady has zeroed in on Julian Edelman (15 targets, 12 catches for 176 yards in two games) and Rob Gronkowski (17 targets, eight catches for 72 yards), he has all but ignored wide receivers Brandon LaFell (six targets – none against the Vikings – zero catches) and Danny Amendola (six targets – one against Minnesota – three catches, 15 yards). Even running back Shane Vereen, considered an impossible matchup for many defenses, only touched the ball seven times against Minnesota.

Brady knows he has to look elsewhere. “A big part of what we’re trying to do offensively to make us hard to defend is to be able to throw the ball to everybody,” he said.

Josh McDaniels, the Patriots’ offensive coordinator, stressed that the game plan will change week to week but that the Patriots always want to be physical.

“If you’re trying to measure how tough you are, you certainly offensively need to be able to run the football,” he said. “And I know that’s been something that has always been a goal of ours to try to be a tough, smart offense, and that really starts with your ability to run the football.

“We’re going to try to be balanced each week, and hopefully we can maintain that as the year goes on.”


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