A novel notion of "balance"

[Laurence Horn]

On Jan 12, 2014, at 1:11 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> At 1/12/2014 12:50 PM, Dan Goncharoff wrote:
>> I thought the "balance" referred to the substitution of runners: Ridley had
>> 14 carries, nearly as many as the leading Colts rusher, and Blount had 24.
>>
>> It is rare that the second most frequent rusher has as many as 14 carries.
>
> Dan has information I didn't, and associates "balance" (correctly, I
> take it) with the runners rather than the runs.
>
And going into the game (when I assume this was written), the reference would have been to the fact that the Patriots regularly use three running backs in significant ways--Ridley [their original started, who was benched for a while because of fumbling problems], Blount [who has emerged recently], Shane Vereen [who plays on third down and catches a lot of passes]--and a fourth running back, Brandon Bolden, has played a bunch too.  An unusually balanced running attack, in other words.

--LH (in Pats' country)

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