As long as Tom Brady has been under center, the Patriots have been extremely dynamic on offense.

The offense has been able to evolve through the year from a high-flying passing attack with Randy Moss and Wes Welker, tight end centric with Rob Gronkowski and now it appears like the running game is getting a bit more pump in 2018 with James White, Sony Michel and others contributing to the backfield. Of course, Brady's still able to sling it all around the field, but it's that running game that has helped setup play action, an area where Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer says the Patriots are the best in the NFL at.

“Well they’re obviously very well coached, they’re very disciplined in everything they do,” Zimmer told New England reporters during his conference call Tuesday, via NESN.com. “They’ve got as you said a lot of weapons, the guy pulling the trigger is one of the best of all time, and I think the way they’re running the football really accentuates all those things.”

He added: "And (they’re) the best play action team in the NFL.”

Josh McDaniels has always been able to scheme up some deception plays and Brady is as good as anyone at selling the handoff before firing it out of the pocket.

“It’s a combination of (everything),” Zimmer continued. “A lot of teams run play action (out of formations) that they don’t really run the runs out of. But their play action looks exactly like the run, the offensive line does an outstanding job, Brady’s really good with the play action and the receivers do a good job of getting to the spots where the linebackers or the safeties are getting sucked into.”

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With Sony Michel in the fold, New England has a much more forceful running game as was evident in their 215 yard effort against the Jets on Sunday at MetLife Stadium. That threat of a legit running game does force linebacker and safeties to play a bit closer to the line of scrimmage, which when used correctly can set up huge gains with play action.

“It does a lot for us," Brady of the running game while appearing on WEEI's Mut and Callahan Monday. "The running game and them respecting what we’re doing in the running game helps play-action, helps get matchups and so forth. It’s just a great way to control the game when you can run it. We ran it so well [Sunday].”

The Vikings, meanwhile, have a top-10 defense pretty much across the board, which means the Patriots will have to be especially crafty in trying to put points up on the board when these two teams square off on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.