New England Patriots: Can the Front Seven Shut Down Fred Jackson?

Buffalo Bills quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, otherwise known as "The Amish Rifle," has come out guns blazing in 2011. Fred Jackson, however, has meant just as much to the success of the Bills offense as their quarterback.

It's hard to believe in today's pass-happy NFL that the above statement could be legit, but the logic is there. Fitzpatrick's start is diminished slightly by his paltry average of 6.6 yards per pass attempt.

On 35 carries, Jackson has a league-leading total of 229 yards, and is running at 6.5 yards per carry. Albeit a small sample size of two games, just one-tenth of a yard separates a running play from a passing play for Buffalo.

Which means more to the success of the offense? If it's any indication what Bill Belichick thinks (a puzzle that's as hard to solve as a Rubix cube), the Patriots head coach has heaped the praise on Jackson many times in the past.

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"He's outstanding, good at everything, good on blitz pickup, a good outside runner, good inside runner. ... They use him in the passing game as a receiver, split out and empty and those kinds of things. He's a very good screen back. ... He's got big-time speed as well as power, but he's very tough in the tackle-to-tackle area. It seems like he can always find some space and get a few yards and squeeze through there or power through there."

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Who's he talking about, Fred Jackson or Marshall Faulk? At least the praise gives us a tip that Jackson is the key cog of the Bills offense and requires much of the focus on defense.

Through the first two games of the season, the New England Patriots' inability to stop quarterbacks has underscored a rough start for the defense, but that hasn't been the only problem. 

The problems the Patriots have faced, though, have mainly been against dual-threat running backs. Mike Tolbert, Ryan Mathews and Reggie Bush are all very solid as pass-catchers out of the backfield. 

The Patriots have given up 33 carries for 124 yards and a touchdown on the ground to opposing running backs, but 24 receptions for 191 yards and a touchdown through the air.

Fortunately for New England, Jackson's not elite in that facet like Bush, but he does have some skills in that area. In the past two seasons, he's hauled in 77 passes for 586 yards and four touchdowns.

The Patriots will likely call on Dane Fletcher to be Jackson's spy, following him all over the field. Fletcher was primarily the one responsible for holding Ray Rice to just 88 yards on 28 carries and 38 yards on eight receptions in New England's meeting with the Baltimore Ravens last year.

Fletcher can't do it on his own, and will need solid run-gap discipline from the guys up front. Jackson is solid both inside and out, and is very shifty and capable of finding those running lanes wherever they may turn up. 

As always, it will need to be a team effort. It will be up to Albert Haynesworth and Vince Wilfork to eat up the middle of the field, while Andre Carter and Shaun Ellis will be responsible for setting the edge in run defense.

None of that diminishes what Fletcher's performance would mean to the Patriots defense as a whole, should he be given that role.

Another solid performance from Fletcher in spy duty would allow the Patriots to play more coverage, preventing big plays to guys like Stevie Johnson, Scott Chandler and others. Those are problems for another article.

Bart Scott famously said of the New England Patriots defense, "They can't stop a nose bleed!"

They'll have a lot more than a bloody nose to worry about when they travel to Buffalo to face a Bills team that has punched two consecutive defenses square in the mouth.