Laurence Maroney has struggled this season, averaging less than four yards a carry with no touchdowns.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Something is going on with Laurence Maroney.

But he’s not saying what it is.

The normally gregarious running back has been downright elusive when it comes to the media lately, but acquiesced yesterday when a couple of reporters asked for a minute as he was headed out to practice at San Jose State.

The third-year back has been a hot topic in recent weeks. He missed the Patriots’ game against Miami with a shoulder injury. Though he was not on the team’s injury report before the San Francisco game and played against the Niners, Maroney may have reaggravated the shoulder because he’s back on the report this week.

Asked point-blank about the shoulder, Maroney said he wouldn’t discuss it. Asked if the shoulder was part of the reason he didn’t surge for a first down in San Francisco, instead stepping out of bounds just short of the marker, he wasn’t letting on.

“Hey, I have my issues,” he said. “There are reasons. I’d rather not speak about them. But there are reasons.”

Television cameras captured New England running backs coach Ivan Fears animatedly talking to Maroney on the sidelines in San Francisco, but Maroney denied that Fears was yelling at him, though he also said he couldn’t remember what the coach was saying.

Maroney had 10 carries against the 49ers, but totaled just 26 yards. At times he seemed hesitant behind the line of scrimmage, instead of finding the hole and bursting through it. Maroney has 28 carries for 93 yards this season, an average of 3.3 yards per carry. He has no touchdowns.

Still, as questions of his durability and effectiveness resurface, the former Minnesota standout thinks it best to tune them out.

“You’re going to get criticism because, one, people really don’t know what it is,” he said. “And they don’t know what you’re dealing with. All they’re going to know is what you put out there on the TV. So you’re going to get criticism until they find out exactly what is going on, and what is the problem. I really don’t pay it no attention. I just keep doing what I can do and try to make the best out of it.”

New England vice president of player personnel Scott Pioli said yesterday that Maroney has been effective when he’s been on the field, pointing to the end of last season, when the running back topped 100 yards in four of the Pats’ last six games, including their two playoff victories.

Bill Belichick gave Maroney a vote of confidence this week as well.

Lacking the wide smile and the longer, sometimes winding, sometimes joke-filled answers he gives, Maroney said he likes being part of the running back committee, adding that it spurs him on to do well when it’s his turn if he sees one of the others doing well.

He’s unsure when his “issue” might be resolved.

“Well, all I can say is that I’m trying,” he said. “That’s all I can do at the end of the day, no matter what the media say, how they perceive me, how the fans perceive me. At the end of the day, that’s all I can do.

“If I was out here not trying, that’s one thing. But I’m actually out here trying to do what I can do. So I don’t really care what everybody else says. The coaches know the issue. I know the issue. And we’re trying to make the issue better, if we can.”

smanza@projo.com