Stevan Ridley may feel the full wrath of Bill Belichick when the Patriots start to go over the tape from Sunday afternoon’s game against the Bills. Or maybe being benched was punishment enough for the third-year running back.
Regardless, Ridley isn’t allowing the benching to affect him much moving forward.
“I never get too high and never get too low,” Ridley told WEEI.com. “Just try to stay even keel. This is the first game today of the 2013 season and all the talk before this is what happened last year. But it just goes to show that things can change day-to-day. Coming in, I have two turnovers. I can’t blame anybody but myself and just man up and come back to work. I’m just going to put my nose in the dirt and keep grinding. That’s all I can do.”
Ridley coughed up the ball twice. One was recovered by New England and the other was recovered 74 yards by Bills safety Da’Norris Searcy for six. After the second fumble, Ridley was benched for Shane Vereen for the remainder of the game.
“Absolutely,” Ridley told WEEI.com when asked if he would have to win his job back. “Two turnovers, I was out of there the rest of the game. Hey, I’m not going to pout about it, just keep grinding.”
Vereen was impressive in Ridley’s stead. The Cal product had 14 carries for 101 yards and seven catches for 58 yards.
Have a question for Doug Kyed? Send it to him via Twitter at @DougKyedNESN or send it here.
