THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- One by one, Patriots running backs kept getting hurt. Yard by yard, little-known BenJarvus Green-Ellis kept moving forward.

The undrafted rookie who was cut in training camp is now a key to New England's ground game. The rusher with the long name who attended two colleges has settled in with one team and established an identity as a solid contributor.

Coach Bill Belichick calls him "Benny." To blocking back Heath Evans, he's "Mr. Humility."

To Green-Ellis himself, he's just a hard worker doing what he's asked to do, whether it was mimicking opposing runners in practice or gaining important yards for a team battered by injuries but still tied for the AFC East lead with the New York Jets, the Patriots' opponent Thursday night.

On Sunday, he had the best of his five pro games in a 20-10 win over the Buffalo Bills. He gained 105 yards on 26 carries and capped a 19-play drive with a one-yard run as the Patriots iced the game with a 20-3 lead with 1:57 remaining.

"We got the `W' so of course it feels good," Green-Ellis said.

The Patriots had released him on the final pre-season cutdown because they already had Laurence Maroney, Kevin Faulk, Sammy Morris, LaMont Jordan and Evans ahead of him in the backfield. The next day, Aug. 31, they signed him to the practice squad.

Then, before their fifth game, they signed him to the active roster. Now, with Maroney out for the season with a shoulder injury, Jordan (calf) sidelined for the last five games and Morris (knee) for the last three, Green-Ellis is the primary ball carrier.

On Monday, Jordan walked through the locker room with a removable boot on his lower right leg, and Morris politely declined to talk with reporters. Green-Ellis wasn't seen during the media availability period.

But on Sunday he said he just wanted to be ready to help in whatever role he could. Now he's doing it by controlling the one thing that he can, taking a handoff and running as far as possible.

He didn't waste time dwelling on things he couldn't control, whether it was being passed over in the draft or the numerous injuries that gave him a chance to contribute.

"The draft is one of the things that you have no control over," Green-Ellis said. "You just have to roll with the punches. You expect the best, plan for the worst."

The Patriots were impressed enough to sign him. He spent his first two seasons at Indiana, rushing for 1,732 yards and 12 touchdowns. He transferred to Mississippi, where he rushed for 1,000 yards as a junior and 1,137 as a senior.

"He is a good runner. We have seen that from Day 1," Belichick said, but "we carried five backs and he was the sixth."

Green-Ellis said his mother, Latonia Green, has been at all the Patriots games this season and attended all but one of his college games. His father's last name is Ellis. BenJarvus is simply a name his mother liked.

His teammates like the player he's become: patient, intelligent, a straightahead runner who would rather gain fewer yards by plowing ahead than risk losing a bunch by dancing around.

The five-foot-11, 215-pound Green-Ellis chooses not to describe his running style.

"I let everybody else describe it," he said, "and I just try to run and score touchdowns and do whatever they ask me to do."

Whatever his style, his teammates like it.

"Mr. Humility. That's what we love about him," Evans said. "He fits in so well here. He's a guy that just comes to work. So smart. For a young guy, you rarely see that these days."

Faulk, one of the Patriots' three healthy running backs, praised Green-Ellis' preparation even when he was behind five players on the depth chart.

"It lets you know what type of player he is, what type of competitor he is," Faulk said. "He just had to go about his business but work hard and continue because you never know what can happen during the course of the season."

So far, Green-Ellis has exceeded expectations. He's even rushed for a touchdown in each of his last four games and has saved the balls he carried into the end zone.

"Right now, I'm just putting them in my house," he said. "I don't know what I'm going to do with them after the season."