FOXBORO — After the New England Patriots’ win in Cincinnati, Benjamin Watson expressed a desire to play some linebacker the way Mike Vrabel gets to play some tight end once in a while.

Watson didn’t get that wish yesterday, but he did get a cameo role as a running back.

In the third quarter of New England’s win over the Browns, Watson ran a right-to-left-reverse, getting the ball from Tom Brady and gaining 11 yards.

They were his first NFL rushing yards.

“That was great,” Watson said. “I was surprised, [thinking] ‘they really called it?’ It was exciting. Hopefully they’ll call it more; it makes you feel good they felt comfortable enough to call it.”

Watson added that the Pats installed the play for him this season, but he never knew if it would be used in a game; as he noted, there are plays that never see game action. But the time and defense were right, and Watson got his chance.

It was like that all day for the fourth-year tight end: he recorded his first career 100-yard receiving game (six catches, 107 yards) and had two TDs.

He now has five scores in New England’s five games. Though he had a career-best 49 catches last year, Watson is likely being helped this season by the presence of Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth and Wes Welker.

“It definitely helps having a guy like Randy that everyone has to pay attention to, but you see the first few games he got attention and he still made catches,” Watson said.

Belichick believes Watson’s presence helps the receivers as well.

“I think they all probably help each other. It’s hard to cover all of them. I can tell you that from practice,” he said.

“The great thing about Ben,” Tom Brady said, “he has these games where they kind of could be breakout games and if you stop paying attention to him, he really hurts you. I think that was the situation on both of those touchdown passes: they’re over-playing one thing and forget about Ben and he’s there to make the play. He’s a threat every time he’s in the red zone because he has great hands, he’s very elusive, he gets open on the linebackers.”