Ground game helps Pats climb higher

FOXBOROUGH – This was like watching Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier. Or was it Larry Csonka and Jim Kiick? It was vintage 1970s power football, with LeGarrette Blount and Stevan Ridley as the stars.Power football has not been a visible commodity with the New England Patriots in recent years. Not since the days of Corey Dillon have the Patriots featured a bruising rushing attack the way they have in 2013-14. And Logan Mankins, for one, likes it that way.?It think it?s great,” he said after the Patriots? 43-22 win over the Indianapolis Colts Saturday night that propelled them to their third straight AFC championship game Sunday (eighth in the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick era).?Me, personally, I believe that our team is best when we are running the ball like that (a total pf 234 yards, 166 of them by Blount, with 67 more by Ridley),” Mankins said. “The more runs we get, the better we are and the better our chances to win.”As they say, necessity is often the mother of invention. Nowhere are the Patriots more depleted than they are at receiver. They were behind the eight-ball from the start, with the Aaron Hernandez situation and the loss (via free agency) of Wes Welker. Then Rob Gronkowski went down. And Saturday, the Patriots were without Aaron Dobson, and Kenbrell Thompkins suffered a concussion midway through the game. They were without a receiver over six feet tall.The diminutive Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola made some plays (including a nifty 53-yard play fake from Brady to Amendola), but if the Patriots couldn?t run the ball, they weren?t going to get far.?We feel like we had the advantage tonight physically,” Mankins said, “and we ran the ball well.”Blount, he says, has been a real find.?You can see where no one in their secondary wants to tackle him,” Mankins said.?(When you commit to running the ball) you are going to lose some yards sometimes, and you?re going to have no gains sometimes,” he said. “But as long as you have the amount of runs called and keep the number high, eventually you?re going to pop one out there. Eventually you?re going to wear them down and get some bigger runs … eventually good things will happen.”?We didn?t know we were going to be able to dominate,” said Blount, whose 166 yards served as a more-than-worthy follow-up to the 189 he piled up two weeks ago against the Buffalo Bills. “But we came in, and our plan was to play tough and play physical, and go out there and get a win by any means necessary.”All six touchdowns came via the ground, and five of the six came with the ball parked inside the 10-yard line. The other one was a 79-yard rush by Blount.?If you told me before the game (that the Patriots would win a playoff game without Tom Brady throwing a touchdown pass), I wouldn?t have believed it,” Blount said.Blount?s four touchdown runs set a playoff franchise record.?It means a lot,” he said. “I?m excited that they gave me the chance to carry the ball enough times to do that.”Brady was ecstatic, and didn?t seem to care that he played second fiddle to his backs.?It was pretty cool,” he said. “We keep playing like that, the way our defense is getting the ball for us, and really what we?ve done the last three or four weeks, the running game has been awesome. It has helped everything out. It makes it easy to win when you hand it off and it goes 70 yards for a touchdown.”The Patriots play the Denver Broncos in Denver Sunday.