The New England Patriots walloped the Carolina Panthers, 41-14, in Week 4. Two running backs who fumbled against Pittsburgh, Rhamondre Stevenson and Antonio Gibson, received about the same number of snaps as against Pittsburgh. The question is, should they have?
Fortunately, there were no fumbles or turnovers of any kind against Carolina. But did the coach set a troubling precedent?
When you play a clean game with no turnovers, you can expect better results, and the big win bears out that supposition. Moving forward is the central question for Mike Vrabel and his offensive coaching staff. Vrabel decided to take no action on snap counts for the fumbling running backs as a result of the fumbles against Carolina, and it worked.