Ground to a Halt: Patriots' Running Game Ugly

Good news for the New England Patriots is that they're fully justified in using a draft pick on punter Bryce Baringer. Bad news for the Patriots is that they're fully justified in using a draft pick on punter Bryce Baringer.

Baringer saw the field more than was reasonably expected in the Patriots' preseason opener Thursday night, putting four times in the first half. That was brought about by a sleepy evening for the Patriots' offense, an outing partly armed with the asterisk of knowing that a good number of starters left their shoulder pads in the Gillette Stadium locker room.

Nonetheless, it's hard to muster any realistic joy over the Patriots' first summer game, at least from an offensive perspective. Even if preseason takeaways hold an increasingly dim value: before Malik Cunnigham's 75-yard trek of gimmickry, the Patriots (0-1) put up only 105 yards and placed only a Nick Folk field goal set up by Jalen Mills' interception of C.J. Stroud. The non-Rhamondre Stevenson running back picture suffered in particular: removing the tallies of the quarterbacks, namely Cunningham, the Patriots had only 35 yards on 18 rushes.

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick wasn't in the mood to discuss the rushing attack ... or lack thereof ... in the aftermath of a 20-9 defeat.

“I mean, we’re dealing with some injuries on the offensive line,” a mum Belichick said. “But the guys that were in there got some experience. But, yeah, it’s tough for the backs. It’s tough for the quarterback. Yeah, we didn’t have a lot of space on the offense for the most part.”

Behind Stevenson, the Patriots are working with a familiar young bunch of Kevin Harris, Pierre Strong Jr., and JJ Taylor. Strong was the leading gainer of that group with 21 on six carries, eight alone coming on a short fourth down during the aforementioned Cunningham drive to keep the lone touchdown trek alive.

The box score was ugly enough and the upcoming film study might prove more gruesome. All that doesn't even account for the potential doom that could loom on the transaction ledger: after all this time, the Patriots' interest in adding an elite, household brand of rushing talent (i.e. Ezekiel Elliott) hasn't waned. 

Nonetheless, those involved in the rushing carnage were grateful in macabre, if not inspiring, sense of camaraderie and vowed to fix their mistakes together.

“I haven’t watched the film, but all I know is this is going to be something to learn from," Taylor said. "We can learn a lot from it and as a group, we’re going to come in (Friday) and pay attention, study, learn from it, and then hopefully come out (better) next time. 

“The (running back) room is great. The camaraderie is amazing. We all look out for each other. We all got each other’s back. I know we’re fighting for jobs and stuff like that, but at the end of the day, we all want to see each other succeed.”

The Patriots will have some extra time to fully figure out what went wrong, as their next preseason tilt lands on Aug. 19 against the Green Bay Packers (8 p.m. ET, WBZ).