The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

FOXBORO — Everyone knows Tom Brady can throw and Randy Moss and Wes Welker can catch.

But for a while, no one believed the Patriots could run.

Over the last few weeks, however, New England — specifically second-year back Laurence Maroney — has shown that it can be just as effective on the ground as it is through the air, something that will serve the Pats well in the playoffs.

That the Patriots can move the chains by running the ball helps in two ways. With the potential of two playoff games in Foxboro and the unknown of a New England winter, it becomes crucial to be able to run effectively if Mother Nature whips up an ugly storm. And it also gives defenses, which already have to deal with the task of covering Moss, Welker, Jabar Gaffney and Donte Stallworth, one more thing to worry about.

“It’s what you try to do as an offense — keep the defense second-guessing,” Kevin Faulk said yesterday.

“That’s the idea,” Giants coach Tom Coughlin said via conference call. “The idea is to go ahead and force people to think about one thing and then be able to rely on another. When they’re [the defense] playing pass, you run, and when they’re playing run, you pass. That’s part of the game.”

For much of the season, Brady’s arm, the phenomenal athleticism of Moss and the shiftiness of Welker were almost all New England needed to give its foes fits.

Against the Steelers earlier this month, the Patriots ran the ball only nine times, including a four-yard scramble by Brady. It was the second-fewest carries in a game in franchise history, behind the six the team had in its Halloween loss in Pittsburgh to end its 21-game win streak in 2004 and another nine-tote game against Denver in 1996.

But in the last two games, the Pats have averaged more than 160 rushing yards, with Maroney enjoying back-to-back 100-yard days for the first time in his young career. The former first-round draft pick, criticized in the media for “dancing” and not running with authority, has been the type of runner New England wants him to be in that time. He’s had four- to five-yard gains and gotten big runs in the flow of the game instead of always looking to break a big gain every time he’s handed the ball.

Against the Jets, he had a career-high 26 carries for 104 yards, an average of four yards per carry. More importantly, he didn’t have a run for negative yardage that day. Last Sunday against the Dolphins, he got to show his speed, with two runs of 50 yards or more, including a perfectly executed 59-yarder in the first half.

Coughlin said he hasn’t seen anything different on tape that’s leading to rushing success for the Pats.

“I think that there are certain formations that they’ve gotten into that are more run-oriented than others. But they’ve always used the pass-type formation looks to sneak the run in there on you,” he said. “They would continue to do that. I haven’t seen anything other than that. The 59-yarder was extremely well blocked — that was a bang-bang touchdown.”

While Maroney, Faulk and Heath Evans haven’t been called upon too often, especially after Sammy Morris’ season-ending injury against Dallas, all understand that it simply wasn’t in the game plan for New England to be run-heavy in those weeks. That didn’t mean, however, that the Pats couldn’t get the job done.

It just wasn’t their turn to put in the work.

Now that their numbers are being called with more frequency, they’re relishing the opportunity.

“As a competitor, as a running back, you always love the work,” Faulk said. “But as a team player — I’ve been here a long time — the team comes first. In the beginning of the year, we had to throw.”

Evans echoed Faulk’s words.

“On this team, week in and week out, opportunities change, the game plan changes,” he said. “As a running back core group, we just want to get the job done. We don’t want it to ever come back that this group didn’t get the job done.”

During this most uncommon of weeks, with history a possibility and the playoffs upon them, Evans and his fellow running backs have the same goal as the rest of the Patriots.

“Let’s get better this week,” he said. “This is the last regular-season game, so for us, it’s okay. We’ve tried to get better every week through 15. Let’s not let that change this week.”

smanza@projo.com