Here's why NY was a bad situation for Dayne. They wanted him to be a move-the-pile type RB. He's not a move-the-pile type RB. Denver doesn't try to move the pile most of the time. Most of the time they try and make a hole and let him pound a LB for yards. That very much suits Ron Dayne's style.
I was at Denver-Miami yesterday, and I was freaking out. I saw Anderson in for two drives, and then Bell come in, and I thought "Oh, he's just being used as a change of pace". Then Bell was ineffective for a couple of drives and he was still in and I was thinking "It's just because he broke that one long run". Then Bell was in on the goal line and it finally clicked "Ohhhhhh, Mike Anderson must be injured, and the coaches are giving Bell a shot over Dayne because they want him to be successful!" Then Bell continued to suck it up, and I was looking nervously around wondering when they were going to send in Ron Dayne.
I was afraid that everything I had assumed about the Denver situation was incorrect (that Anderson would be used as a workhorse, and that Dayne had a chance to be #2). I got home afterwards and checked the internet and was reassured.
Here's my take on the matter. Anderson has bruised ribs and will probably be playing next week. Dayne will not be deactivated again. If Anderson goes down, I expect Bell to get one more shot against a decent defense, but he'll be on a very short leash. If he again fails to make an impression, it's the Anderson and Dayne show.
Edit to say: Dayne was deactivated over Bell because he's a backup and Bell was a change of pace, so if Anderson didn't get hurt, he wouldn't have seen any time and Bell would have. Had Dayne not been deactivated, I expect he would have finished the game with more carries than Bell.