New England Patriots: RB Danny Woodhead
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The New England Patriots wanted to mix up their offense last weekend to include more runs, to slow down the Denver Broncos blitzers who were intent on trying to disrupt Tom Brady and get him off of his rhythm. The Patriots turned to Aaron Hernandez, who wound up being their leading rusher with five rushes for a whopping 61 yards. That average of 12.2 yards per rush is just amazing.
What may surprise you to read is that as effective as Hernandez was rushing, BenJarvus Green-Ellis was far from it. He managed to gain only 28 yards on 13 carries for a very meager average of just 2.2 yards per carry. As we demonstrated with Ray Rice earlier, those are the kind of performances that prevent your team from playing one more week. The guy that had an extremely effective game running the ball was Danny Woodhead, who gained 25 yards on just four rushes, for a strong average of 6.3 yards per rush.
Woodhead is small in stature, but he is big in playing with heart. He can be difficult to find behind the much bigger linemen, and with his quickness, he can easily burst through the initial wave and pick up five or six yards per carry before the defense even knew that he had the ball. Woodhead can be an effective receiver out of the backfield as well, using his quickness to get into the open field, and be effective in picking up yards after the catch.