FOXBOROUGH – There’s nothing like a running game to cure what ails you and right the ship.The New England Patriots got as balanced an offensive performance as they’d have in quite some time Sunday, defeating the Atlanta Falcons (and former BC quarterback Matt Ryan), 26-10, at Gillette Stadium.”The backs ran very well,” said quarterback Tom Brady, who, after being besieged by the New York Jets in last week’s defeat at the Meadowlands, was not sacked once, and was bothered on very few occasions.”They helped set up the play action,” Brady said, referring to the Patriots’ ability yesterday to keep the Atlanta defenders at bay by faking handoffs into the line.Fred Taylor, whom the Patriots acquired during the off-season as a free agent, ran hard all afternoon, running for 105 yards on 21 carries. Brady wasn’t perfect, going only 3-for-10 from inside the red zone, but he was good enough – throwing for 277 yards and completing 25 out of 42 attempts. In fact, if there was anything negative to take away from the game, it was the Patriots’ inability to score from inside the 20. Only once, in five attempts, did they score in the red zone, and that was on a seven-yard rush by Taylor. But they had to settle for four field goals from Stephen Gostkowski before Brady finally hit tight end Chris Baker with a 36-yard TD pass that sealed the deal.”We were better,” said Brady, “but there are still things to work on.”The biggest story of the game, aside from the ease with which the Patriots handled the emerging Ryan, was the time of possession: 39:49 for the Patriots to only 20:11 for Atlanta.”You keep the ball, you keep (Ryan) off the field,” said Taylor.The defense looked as if it would have a terrible time stopping Ryan, letting him slide down the field for 72 yards in 12 plays. But the drive stalled, and Jason Elam had to settle for a 26-yard field goal.Brady began mixing it up right away, getting the running backs involved, and employing liberal use of draw plays and play-action passes, and he moved the Pats downfield in a hurry. But, just like Atlanta, the drive stalled and Gostkowski booted a 21-yard field goal with 42 seconds left in the quarter to tie the score at 3-3.Brady led the Pats downfield again, after forcing an Atlanta punt, and this time, Taylor really asserted himself, rushing four straight times from in close – the last one for an eight-yard TD.Atlanta retied it when Ryan on Michael Turner’s two-yard run, but Brady led the Patriots back up field in time for Gostkowski to kick a field goal just before time expired in the half, giving the Patriots a 13-10 lead.The second half belonged totally to the Patriots. They got two more field goals from Gostkowski – one in the third and the other in the fourth – to pad their lead to 19-10, before Brady hit Baker with the bomb with three minutes to go. They extended the second drive twice on fourth-down plays, one from well inside their own territory.”Coach (Bill Belichick) said at some point in the season we’d have to do that,” Taylor said. “I guess this was the time.””I thought we could get a yard,” said Belichick. “It kept us on the field ? and kept them off the field.”uThe Patriots won the game – and kept Ryan at bay – despite losing two members of their defensive line: Vince Wilfork, who hobbled off the field with an ankle injury in the second quarter; and his backup, Mike Wright, who left the field under his own power late in the second half. They also lost Laurence Maroney with a hip injury as well.”I’m sure everybody’s sore,” said Belhichick. “It was a tough, physical game.”uNobody had a right to have more aches and pains than Taylor, who ran strong ? and ran over a few people.”That felt good,” he said. “It always feels good to run over a few people keep momentum going.”But,” he said, “I’m waiting for the Advil and Tylenol to wear off.”uDefensively, the Patriots game-planned for Atlanta tight end Tony Gonzalez.”He’s impossible to cover one-on-one,” said Belichick, “so we doubled hi