Patriots first glimpse

The Patriots kicked off the pre-season Thursday night with a narrow victory over the Saints.  What would typically be expected to be an old fashioned shoot out between two elite passing offenses, turned out to be a low scoring affair.  That may have been partly due to the fact that the two future Hall of Fame QBs didn't last through the first quarter before relaxing on the bench to become spectators the rest of the way, but when these two teams meet, you tend to expect a score higher than 7-6.

Here are a few things I noticed from our first glimpse of the Patriots this year.

• The first team offense looked a bit sluggish in their limited action.  Tom Brady and his top receivers played less than the full first quarter, completing two drives that failed to put points on the scoreboard. New acquisition Brandon Lloyd is still looking to develop his timing with Brady, as he just missed hauling in catches on his two targets.  They need some work before they become comfortable enough with each other to routinely hit on those routes, but they aren't far off.  Lloyd is clearly comfortable in Josh McDaniels' offense, so it's only a matter of time before they get it right.
• The Tight Ends continue to be a heavy focus in the offense.  Rob Gronkowski appeared to be a half step slow on his first target, but it was great to see him haul in a couple of passes as he continues to work his way back from the ankle injury suffered in last year's postseason.
• The offensive line struggled at times, igniting many pre-season concerns about this unit being a weak point of the team.  With Logan Mankins and Sebastian Vollmer out with injuries and Brian Waters pondering retirement (in addition to the losses of the recently retired Matt Light and Robert Gallery), the O-Line is far from being at full strength.  They'll need some guys to step up and protect Brady until their reinforcements return.  The team is looking for a breakout season from second year lineman Nate Solder, who was beat several times early in this game by Will Smith (no, not that Will Smith).
• New addition Steven Gregory showed good hands by hauling in a batted ball for an interception.  The former Charger will hopefully settle in as a starter at safety, alongside Patrick Chung (who later added a pick off of his own), to stabilize a position that was a revolving door most of last season.

• Chandler Jones looks like a beast!  The powerful defensive end used his long arms to evade blockers and put pressure on the quarterback on several occasions.  He may not have earned a sack, but the pressure he brought sure altered plays and forced the Saints to throw the ball away.
• Steven Ridley likely will enter the season as the lead back of a committee.  He looked pretty good in the first half, but Shane Vereen really shined when given a chance in the third quarter.  His 7 carries for 63 yards on a drive that helped set up the Patriots only score of the game helped carry the Patriots best drive of the night.  He showed flashes of great break away speed with big play potential, which should be a great complement to Ridley's power running game.
• So far, my locks to make the team out of the Patriots deep group of receivers would be: Welker, Lloyd, Gaffney, Edelman and Slater.  The latter two make the team mostly for their value on special teams.  With room for only one more, it will be a battle this pre-season between Stallworth and Branch for that final spot.  Branch has missed a lot of time in training camp and didn't appear in this game, while Stallworth did little to impress in his limited time.  He had one catch for 1 yard and was targeted on the tipped pass from Mallett that was intercepted.
• The much maligned secondary was fairly impressive against a high powered Saints offense.  Granted Jimmy Graham didn't play and Drew Brees only played two series, but they held him to a three and out on the Saints first drive of the game and continued to play shut down defense for most of the game, while keeping them out of the end zone.  A promising start for a defense that finished 31st in total yards allowed last season.

• Brian Hoyer and Ryan Mallett are in a battle for the honor of being the first QB on the depth chart behind Tom Brady.  They were both solid, but neither did enough to pull away from the other in this race.  They both show some promise and should treat fans to an entertaining position battle throughout the pre-season.
• One of the big stories of the off-season has been the ongoing issue between the league and it's referees.  The league is currently using replacement refs for the pre-season and there is some concern that if this lasts into the regular season then games could suffer with inferior officiating.  From what I saw in this game, there doesn't appear to be a big drop off.  These refs are going to miss calls once in a while, as any ref would, but overall they did a pretty decent job when you consider their lack of experience at this level.  If nobody told you ahead of time that these were replacement refs, you probably wouldn't have noticed.  We'll see if that trend continues for as long as the dispute with the referee's union continues.