FOXBORO — Laurence Maroney has heard the whispers all season.

What happened to the player who was a four-time All-Conference running back and two-time All-Stater who broke the Normandy High School single-season rushing record in 2002 when he was named the St. Louis Player of the Year?

What happened to the back who was one-half of the dynamic duo at the University of Minnesota, where he was named to the All-Big 10 first team as a junior and a senior?

What happened to the player the Patroits selected in the first round of the 2006 NFL Draft with the 21st pick?

Is he a bust?

When will Maroney have a breakout game?

The game that Patriot fans had been waiting for nearly two years finally came in Sunday’s 59-0 rout of the woeful Tennessee Titans.

Maroney piled up 123 yards on 23 carries with one touchdown to record his best game since the 2007-08 season.

“One thing I never did was lose confidence in myself,” Maroney said. “I knew with the right opportunities, we can go out there and I can do my thing. I never lost confidence. But after a game like this, it does make me feel good.”

Tennessee entered the game allowing only 75.4 rushing yards per game, which ranked fourth in the NFL, but Sunday’s unexpected snowfall made the Patriots change their game plan a bit.

And Maroney was the biggest benefactor. On his third carry of the game, Maroney took the handoff from Tom Brady and broke through a small hole opened up by center Dan Koppen and rookie tackle Sebastian Vollmer.

Maroney then outraced the Tennessee defense. Forty-five yards later, he was in the end zone, giving the Patriots a 6-0 lead.

“I was just running downhill and being patient,” Maroney said. “I was being patient and it just parted like the Red Sea, and I didn’t have a choice but to take it.”

“He got a little crease, and we all know once he gets out there he can run, and he did,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “He turned it on. He had a couple of nice runs and he runs hard. We had a little bit of space, and once he gets some momentum, he’s a hard guy to bring down. We’ve all seen that before.”

Maroney was fired up after the score and he saluted the cheering crowd that had booed him when the Pats played the Baltimore Ravens two weeks ago and he registered just six yards on seven carries.

“It was a simple dive play up, and we were able to split the defense and Laurence took it full-speed ahead and took it to the house,” Koppen said. “It was a great run by him. He saw the crease and hit it.”

The run was his longest since Dec. 23, 2007, Miami when he had a 59-yard touchdown run against Miami, and it was longer than any of his game-rushing totals all season. Before Sunday, Maroney’s best game this season was a 10-carry effort for 32 yards.

Maroney has been criticized both for “dancing” behind the line of scrimmage before hitting the hole and because he has been injured a lot in his career. But on Sunday, the Foxboro faithful did nothing but cheer him as he hit holes hard and ran with purpose.

It was his fifth career 100-plus yard game in the regular season.

Maroney had just 99 yards on 32 carries and no touchdowns this season prior to Sunday’s game. He was averaging just 3.1 yards per carry, but on Sunday averaged 7.7 yards.

“I was just being patient and ready, waiting for them to call my number,” Maroney said. “They called my number, and I was ready.”

The Patriots needed Maroney to have a good game considering that Fred Taylor is still out after having ankle surgery and Sammy Morris went down with a knee injury early in the first quarter.

“It was sad to see Sammy go down, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Well, you’ve been asking for your opportunity, well here you go,’ ” Maroney said. “It was one of those situations where I knew I had to step up and play big, and put the team on my shoulders as far as the running game, and that’s what I tried to go out there and do.”

Part of the reason why Maroney had been struggling this season is because he had not been given the chance to play very often. He had carried the ball only 10 times in a game once all season, and had been averaging 6.4 carries per contest.

That will change in the future if Maroney can continue to stay healthy, hit the holes fast, run hard, break tackles and improve his field vision.

“I want to build off this,” Maroney said. “I can’t get too high off of it. Now it’s about consistency. How many (good performances) can I put together?”

roblee@projo.com