FOXBORO -- It's not that he's selfish, but Kevin Faulk was thrilled he did not have to share his job yesterday. He was more than happy to be a one-man running gang.
The fifth-year back had a career day as he helped the Patriots to a 9-3 victory over Cleveland at Gillette Stadium.
Faulk handled the ball 29 times for the Patriots -- 23 rushes and 6 pass receptions. He piled up 154 yards, 96 on the ground and 58 more with six catches, all without a fumble.
He played so well that the Pats stayed with him all the way, a departure from the system the team had been using all season. Previously, Faulk, Antowain Smith and Mike Cloud had been sharing the work, often with one handling the job in the first half, then another in the second half. Faulk had no reason to think that was going to change yesterday.
"We never have an idea going into the game. We prepare during the week like both of us, or all three of us, are going to play," Faulk said. All have the same attitude.
"As a running back and as a competitor, you want the ball. You want to help your team win any way you can," Faulk said.
That's exactly what Faulk did against the Browns. Coach Bill Belichick gave some indication of why he decided to go with Faulk all the way.
"Kevin ran hard," Belichick said. "There were a lot of plays where Cleveland's line slanted and he was able to cut the ball back. I thought he did a real good job of reading blockers.
"They are tough. They are a good football team, a good defensive team," the coach added. "I think there was a lot of patience in the running game. The backs have to have that in order to be able to run the ball against them. I thought that Kevin did a good job of letting them set up his blocks, having patience and letting some of those plays sort themselves out."
The three-headed system had been working fine. Entering the game, Faulk had started four times and had 76 carries for 301 yards. Smith had started twice and had 61 carries for 223 yards. And Cloud, after coming off the inactive list, had played in three games, with one start, with 21 carries for 104 yards.
The Pats decided to go with only two backs yesterday. In a bit of a surprise, Cloud was one of the team's inactives for the game. That left Smith and Faulk, who just happened to be the cover boys, together, in the Gameday program sold at the stadium.
Smith barely was able to break a sweat. He got only three carries, for nine yards. Faulk, on the other hand, had the kind of day his distant cousin, St. Louis' Marshall Faulk, has had so often. He touched the ball on more than half his team's plays from scrimmage. He had 10 carries for 44 yards in the first half, and four receptions for 19 more.
He got his team off to a great start in he second half when he took a screen pass from Tom Brady on the first play and turned it into a 26-yard gain, helped by excellent blocks by Damien Woody and Dan Koppen. He was a bit sheepish about taking credit for that one.
"If you really want to know, what it was is that I actually fell down on the play," Faulk said. "I tripped over the tackle . . . I guess they left me alone once I fell down. When I got up there was no one there."
Faulk saved his best for last. With his team ahead, 6-3, the Pats got the ball back on their own 39 with just over seven minutes left. It was not hard to figure out what they wanted do. If they could run the ball, they could wind the clock down.
The Pats ran nearly five minutes off the clock as they kept the ball for 12 plays. Seven were runs by Faulk that accounted for 24 yards. It all led to Adam Vinatieri's third field goal of the game. Faulk was not about to complain about having to work so much.
"When you are in the flow of the game, you don't think about it," he said. "You just want to play and win."
"Kevin's been in and out," Brady noted. "He's been banged up a little bit, but he shows you what he can do when he's healthy. We have some solid backs, with Antowain, with Kevin, with Mike Cloud. Those guys can all run the ball and they run it well. It seems like the more each of them gets an opportunity, the more each of them take advantage and they really step up and do some good things. Kev does a great job of making people miss. He's a very smart player, very tough, runs hard every down. The running game was very, very, very effective today."
Even if Faulk had to carry the load by himself.
