FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England Patriots running back Dion Lewis is back at full strength, as the team's careful management of his return from a torn left ACL has been one of the more important developments of the second half of the regular season.

Lewis' return highlights a most impressive statistic: The Patriots have never lost with him on the field.

"It's great to have him," coach Bill Belichick said Thursday morning. "He's been a very productive player for us. The more of them you have, the better off we are."

Lewis tore the ACL in the eighth game of the 2015 season, at which time the Patriots were on their way to posting their eighth victory. This year, he came off the physically-unable-to-perform list on Nov. 20 at San Francisco, which is when the Patriots' current seven-game winning streak began.

This wasn't the plan, obviously, as Lewis had a setback in his recovery after participating in the final practice of June's minicamp. So instead of joining his teammates at the start of training camp, Lewis instead remained on the PUP list after undergoing a second surgery.

Upon his return to action, he was deliberately eased back into the mix on a strict play count.

at San Francisco: 21 snaps

at New York Jets: 23 snaps

vs. Los Angeles: 20 snaps

vs. Baltimore: 17 snaps

That the Patriots started Lewis in San Francisco, and made the sure the football was in his hands on his first and third play, was a clear-cut snapshot of how a team re-integrates a previously injured player back into the flow while still powering ahead with bigger-picture goals.

After that initial four-game stretch, which was essentially Lewis' preseason, his workload has increased.

at Denver: 28 snaps

vs. New York Jets: 27 snaps

at Miami: 27 snaps

So in 163 total snaps this season, Lewis touched the football 91 times, totaling 64 rushes for 283 yards (4.4 average) and adding 17 receptions for 94 yards (5.5 average). The contrast between the 5-foot-8, 195-pound Lewis and the 6-foot, 250-pound LeGarrette Blount stands out to Belichick.

"He's certainly a different type of runner than LeGarrette as an inside runner. It's the same plays, but they're not really the same, because LeGarrette has his style of running, and Dion has his style of running," he said, adding that the Patriots have sometimes used him together with running back James White, and also with lead-blocking fullback James Develin, which gives defenses something different to handle.

"It's just another productive player for us on offense, another good skill player. We won a lot of games without him. We also won a lot of games with him, and he's given us a lot of production in those games."