FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Dion Lewis, the diminutive, self-aware pinball who rockets out of New England’s backfield, put the perfect stamp on his first playoff game with the Patriots.
Then he smudged it.
Lewis, who missed nearly an entire year after knee surgery prematurely ended his 2015 season, has quietly found himself in a key role for a running backs group that had pounded opponents all season prior to his return.
He led Patriots backs in yards per carry (4.4) during the regular season, but until Saturday’s divisional playoff game against the Texans, he had gone 443 days without scoring a touchdown. In two quick swivels of his apparently triple-jointed hips, Lewis had two scores. Shortly thereafter, his hands failed where his hips had succeeded, and Lewis had helped Houston back into a game that he’d seemingly put away.
In the first quarter, Lewis took a screen pass from Tom Brady and watched heralded Houston linebacker Bernardick McKinney face plant while attempting to make an open-field tackle. He then sprinted to the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown, the first score for either team.
Later in that same quarter, Lewis did something no Patriots player had ever done before. Lewis, who’s the equivalent of Plan C for return men on this team, fielded a Houston kickoff at the Patriots 2-yard-line, and burst through open lanes up to the 30.
He then held up a would-be stiff arm for Texans cornerback Robert Nelson. Nelson decided to take Lewis by the ankles, instead of the body and Lewis swung those ankles well beyond Nelson’s outstretched arms. With Nelson splayed out on the turf, Lewis angled to the opposite sideline and outran linebacker Brian Peters, who had no chance of keeping up. Lewis then dashed untouched up the home sideline for the 98-yard touchdown.
That was the first time the Patriots had ever returned a kickoff for a touchdown in a playoff game. And with a 14-3 lead 14 minutes into the game, New England was well on its way to the lopsided win all reasonable observers has expected. Except, it wasn’t, because footballs take strange bounces, and moments after his hero turn, Lewis had to give back some of his street cred.
He became the fourth player on this year’s team to lose a fumble on a kick return this season, a dubious feat that Cyrus Jones, Matt Slater and Julian Edelman (his came on a punt) have also achieved this season. The fumble he lost on a second-quarter return closed the score to 14-13 and gave Houston hope where little had existed before.
Nonetheless, Lewis has been a key piece in answering the question: How will the Patriots win without Rob Gronkowski? That answer: With everybody else. The Pats seem to have a Swiss-Army-Knife offense with a different skill player for every situation. On Saturday, Lewis became the eighth different player to catch a touchdown pass since Gronk’s injury.
Lewis added his third touchdown on the night with a one-yard rush in the fourth quarter to make it 31-16.
Earlier this week, Pats head Coach Bill Belichick said the appeal of Lewis is that he gives the offense yet another weapon.
“Dion has his style of running,” Belichick said. “It’s definitely not the same (as LeGarrette Blount’s). … It’s great to have him. He’s been a very productive player for us. The more of them you have, I think the better off we are.”
(Dave Brown is a freelance correspondent who covers the Patriots for the Monitor. You can follow him on Twitter @ThatDaveBrown.)