Bill Belichick professes his love for Rhamondre Stevenson

FOXBORO -- Bill Belichick is always quick to credit his players after a victory. But it's not very often that the Patriots head coach professes his love for those players.

He certainly loves his players, but he's not exactly one to say such things in front of the media. On Sunday, however, Belichick was very much smitten with running back Rhamondre Stevenson.

Stevenson was the only running back at Belichick's disposal for most of Sunday's 29-0 win over the Detroit Lions at Gillette Stadium. Lead back Damien Harris had to depart in the first half with a hamstring injury, leaving Stevenson to carry the load the rest of the way.

The 6-foot, 230-pound Stevenson had no problems with that. He barreled through Detroit defenders with relative ease on his way to a career-high 161 rushing yards on 25 carries. He picked up the bulk of those yards after contract, making his total all the more impressive.

Even at the end of the contest with the win in hand, Stevenson was still seeking out defenders to lower his shoulder into and pick up a few extra yards. When Detroit head coach Dan Campbell decided to use all three of his timeouts late in the game, despite being blown out 29-0, the Patriots had to keep feeding the ball to Stevenson. 

The running back kept eating despite his healthy serving of carries throughout the afternoon, picking up a pair of first downs to ice the victory. All Campbell's tactics did was prolong the game's runtime, and force his players to absorb a few more shoulders from Stevenson. 

After the victory, Belichick heaped credit onto Stevenson, and professed his love for the running back not once, but twice. 

"You have to give him a ton of credit. With Damien out, we only carried two backs for the game, and he put it all on his shoulders and finished with a couple of first downs there at the end of the game in the four-minute offense," said Belichick. "Yeah, he is always good. He does a great job with the ball in his hands. He is a strong runner, but he can make people miss. He is a really good football player. Really a good football player. So glad we have him.

"Had a couple of blitz pickup plays right up the middle where he stepped up there. He is a good all-around back. Love him. Love him," the coach added.

Everyone loved Stevenson after Sunday's win. He made life easy for rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe, who credited Stevenson and the offensive line for having an incredible day. Center David Andrews said after the game that while the line opened up holes for Stevenson, the running back did most of the work.

"That's a pretty good day. Did a great job, a couple of big runs, a couple of hard big runs. Stumbling, breaking tackles. We can only block so many, so the running back has to make guys miss," said Andrews. "He did a great job of that. He's very versatile when he gets the ball in his hands. I'm proud of him. He's a great running back and he makes us look a lot better than we are sometimes."

Stevenson, however, played hot potato with the credit after the game.

"I feel like those guys up front, they really led the way, for me and Bailey Zappe today. Just because of how hard they were moving people, how hard they were working, things like that," he explained. "So just those guys up front, I have all the respect for them. Much love."

Stevenson wasn't worried about carrying the load after Harris went down. The team knew that they had to be physical in the run game heading into the Week 5 matchup, and Stevenson simply took things up a notch when the running duties fell solely on him. 

"I just told him I have his back. He kind of knew I did and things like that. So just putting it all together. Just playing a full four-quarter game. Just trying to be physical," he said.

Harris owns the top spot on New England's depth chart at running back, but his bad hamstring may keep him out of action for a bit. Belichick said Monday that the team doesn't expect to get Ty Montgomery (on IR with a knee injury) back anytime soon, which will put a strain on the team's depth.

But the Pats should feel confident that Stevenson can handle the workload that comes with being a lead back. Just ask all the defenders he ran over on Sunday.