Patriots Live Blog: Pats Beat Saints 34-22 In Preseason Opener
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
Final, 34-22 Patriots: That's all she wrote. This one's over.
Malcolm Mitchell got hurt, but other than that, the Patriots likely feel very good about that effort tonight.
Fourth quarter, 3:29, 34-22 Patriots: A Gostkowski field goal likely ices this crucial preseason victory. On that drive, Jacoby Brissett showed some solid evasiveness, twice utilizing the pump fake to free up a window to break free. He's made some questionable decisions, which is to be expected, but physically he certainly looks up to par in the NFL.
Fourth quarter, 5:12, 31-22 Patriots: It's looking like the Patriots' lead is safe, after it looked like Joe Vellano got his hand on the Saints' field goal attempt.
Fourth quarter, 10:26, 31-22 Patriots: The defense has scored once again.
This time, Trey Flowers muscled his way through the inside of the line and went straight for McCown. The quarterback panicked a bit and ended up fumbling. Flowers took McCown to the ground before popping up and scooping the ball and scoring a touchdown.
He could be a useful player for New England this year. That's a good first step.
Fourth quarter, 12:22, 24-22 Patriots: That drive went nowhere. Fast.
Patriots punt.
Fourth quarter, 13:39, 24-22 Patriots: The Saints ended up scoring, but perhaps the more interesting note from that drive is that the Patriots were issued a 15-yard penalty because an assistant coach was standing on the field of play. Added enforcement for the preseason with Dean Blandino in the building, or a sign of things to come in the NFL? It would be wonderful to watch an important game affected by a call like that.
Stick that one in your memory bank.
End of third quarter, 24-16 Patriots: The players are still out there playing, but this certainly no longer resembles an NFL game.
In any event, the Saints are driving.
Third quarter, 4:08, 24-16 Patriots: A drive that started with a false start penalty never ended up going anywhere, and the Patriots went three-and-out.
On punt coverage, Jonathan Jones got up really slow. Looks like he might have just gotten the wind knocked out of him.
Third quarter, 5:14, 24-16 Patriots: Some good coverage by Jonathan Jones on a deep ball on third down, and the Saints punt. V'Angelo Bentley got clobbered Ken Crawley before the ball even came down, which sets up the Patriots on their own 41-yard line.
Third quarter, 6:22, 24-16 Patriots: Tyler Gaffney is an easy player to root for, as injuries have robbed him of his first two NFL seasons. But he just broke out in a big way, busting a 44-yard run on a cutback run to the right side for a touchdown.
It's unclear if he'll ultimately be in the mix to make the final roster, but that play alone must have felt great for a player who's worked as hard as Gaffney has to get back on the field.
Third quarter, 8:32, 17-16 Patriots: Another turnover forced by the Patriots, this one from a most unexpected source.
Cre'von LeBlanc, an undrafted rookie, picked off Luke McCown in the end zone to keep the score at 17-16. It was pretty impressive ball skills on display, as he twisted his body around as the pass came his way and made a one-arm squeeze against his body while falling to the turf.
Third quarter, 12:57, 17-16 Patriots: The Jacoby Brissett debut was not exactly dazzling, as his final two passes of his first drive went through defenders' arms. It wasn't all bad though, as he completed one pass for five yards to DeAndre Carter.
There were wholesale changes on the offense, with Tyler Gaffney getting some long-awaited preseason carries out of the backfield.
But the drive stalled out and the Patriots had to punt. Let's see who's out there on defense.
Third quarter, 15:00, 17-16 Patriots: The Patriots will start the second half with the ball. Jacoby Brissett is in at quarterback.
Halftime, 17-16 Patriots: The Pats decided to go for it on fourth down, with Garoppolo lofting a pass to the end zone for White. He actually made the catch, but linebacker Nate Stupar got his arm between the ball and White's body, ripping it free and keeping the Patriots off the board.
The Saints took a knee, and that's the half.
Second quarter, 1:44, 17-16 Patriots: Bad news for New England, as Malcolm Mitchell had to leave the game after his left arm bent in an unnatural direction on a tackle. Mitchell was having a great debut, with four receptions for 55 yards. He'll be hoping it was just dislocated and not broken, but that was ugly.
Second quarter, 3:26, 17-16 Patriots: The Saints let a long 28-yard completion to Thomas go to waste, as a series of penalties forced them to eventually punt.
Chris Long and Terrance Knighton were both disrupting the Saints' offense throughout that drive.
Jimmy Garoppolo and the offense will take over with 3:26 left and 71 yards to go.
Second quarter, 5:51, 17-16 Patriots: Some good Jimmy, some bad Jimmy on that drive, which was capped by a 38-yard Stephen Gostkowski field goal to give New England the lead.
The good Jimmy came on a 24-yard strike to Malcolm Mitchell up the left sideline. The rookie receiver made a nice spinning catch while keeping his feet in bounds for that one. Just one play earlier, the Patriots went for it on fourth-and-2 near midfield, and Garoppolo ran for the first down.
But bad Jimmy cropped up after that, as he rushed an incompletion to James Develin and then on third down threw an ill-advised, cross-body pass into traffic on the deep middle. He was lucky to not have been picked on that play.
Second quarter, 11:28, 16-14 Saints: The New England defense had itself a better series there, only giving up yards on a long run that came back due to an illegal chop block. Chris Long chased down Thomas from behind on a third down short pass to force a punt.
Cyrus Jones bounced off one tackle on the punt return and looked to make something happen, but ultimately he could only gain a few yards.
The Patriots take over looking to take the lead from their own 34-yard line.
Second quarter, 12:51, 16-14 Saints: The New England offense finally enjoyed a clean, successful drive.
It started with a completion to Aaron Dobson, followed by a 12-yard run by Blount. Then, Garoppolo deftly hung in the pocket with a flurry of white jerseys rushing at his face before flicking a screen pass to James White. The running back found space, got a block, and broke free for 56 yards. He stumbled inside the 15 and ended up falling at the goal line.
Blount plunged in from the 1-yard line on the next play for the score.
The Patriots called White's number on the two-point attempt, but he got swallowed up inside.
Second quarter, 14:22, 16-8: It took the Saints two plays -- an inside handoff to Kuhn, followed by a handoff to Ingram -- to find the end zone, and they now have the lead.
Tommylee Lewis ran in the two-point conversion on a speed sweep, and the Saints now lead by eight.
End of first quarter, 8-8: That hot start for the Patriots defense now seems like a long time ago, as the Saints are marching their way down the field.
Grayson made an easy completion for nine yards to start the drive, and after a two-yard run by C.J. Spiller to move the chains, Grayson hit a wide open Tim Hightower for a gain of 14.
Grayson then went deep to Michael Thomas up the right sideline, and the receiver did a great job to tap both feet before falling out of bounds. He was awarded the catch, which Belichick challenged, but the play was upheld.
Grayson then hit Willie Snead, who had room to run for a gain of 22, getting New Orleans down to the 4-yard line.
First quarter, 2:44, 8-8: That was a better drive for the New England offense, with Garoppolo connecting twice with Bennett to move the chains. But on a first down, Garoppolo was sacked (after impressively getting out of one sack, he ended up walking right into another). On third-and-14, he and James White weren't on the same page, and his pass fell incomplete.
First quarter, 6:09, 8-8: We've got a tie game. The Saints were able to punch it in after starting with great field position, as Mark Ingram bulled his way through the line on consecutive plays to get the touchdown. The Saints went for two, with Grayson rolling to his right and winning the race to the pylon for the conversion.
First quarter, 8:11, 8-0 Patriots: The New England offense, unsurprisingly, doesn't look great. Without Edelman, Amendola, Gronkowski, Lewis and others, it's just slow going, with his drive ending in a three-and-out. Garoppolo, notably, underthrew Bennett on single coverage on a pass that Bennett had to fight just to break up an interception.
Garoppolo is 1-for-3 for 7 yards.
The Saints then got a huge punt return from Marcus Murphy after an initial bobble, setting up the Saints at the New England 15-yard line.
First quarter, 8:54, 8-0 Patriots: The Patriots' defense is rolling, forcing a punt on the Saints' third possession of the night.
Jamie Collins started the drive by crushing Tim Hightower for a loss on first down. After Colby Fleener hauled in a first down pass in front of Patrick Chung, the Saints faced a third down. Jabaal Sheard got great penetration and was on his way to a sack when he got tackled, drawing a flag for holding. That penalty was declined though when Grayson's pass fell incomplete (and Justin Coleman delivered a healthy shot on the intended receiver).
I was unable to get this update in earlier, due to all the action, but Drew Brees started the game and completed a picture-perfect 37-yard pitch and catch with Brandin Cooks to start the game. Justin Coleman had decent coverage on the play, but the ball was placed perfectly for the big gain.
First quarter, 12:00, 8-0 Patriots: The Patriots' defense is already having a great night.
Jabaal Sheard got inside pressure on quarterback Garrett Grayson. The QB rushed a pass to the right side, where Patrick Chung had perfect coverage. The ball tipped in the air and right to Jamie Collins, who returned it all the way into the end zone.
The Patriots decided to go for two, and James White ran it in out of the shotgun to convert it.
First quarter, 12:10, 0-0: The Patriots' offense didn't have the best start. LeGarrette Blount wiped out in the backfield on the first play, before Garoppolo completed a short pass to Bennett. On third down, Kasim Edebali simply outmuscled Nate Solder to get backside pressure on Garoppolo, who held the ball an extra tick and took the sack.
First quarter, 13:58, 0-0: Nice firsts showing for the Patriots' defense, as Jabaal Sheard just rips the ball out of Mark Ingram's hands in the middle of the line. Rookie Cyrus Jones recovered it, and the offense now takes the field.
First quarter, 15:00: No surprise here as Stephen Gostkowski boots it through the end zone.
7:36 p.m.: The Saints will receive to start this one. An early look at the Pats' D awaits.
7:11 p.m.: We're all watching James Garoppolo tonight, but it might be hard to get a good gauge on his performance, considering he'll be throwing mostly to backups. His active receivers will be Aaron Dobson, DeAndre Carter, Chris Harper, Malcolm Mitchell and Devin Lucien. He also likely won't have Rob Gronkowski, who almost never plays in the preseason. And for that matter, I doubt Martellus Bennett even plays much, if at all, based on the rest of the receiving corps.
There will be plenty to read from Garoppolo's performance, but as a forewarning, all of it should come with a bit of an asterisk.
6:31 p.m.: Tom Brady won't even be in the building, as he'll be attending memorial services for a family member.
5:56 p.m.: Because this is Aug. 11, and because offenses aren't exactly firing on all cylinders, and because mistakes are bound to be made, it's probably safe to expect a fair number of punts.
While punts are not usually must-see TV, there will be many eyes on rookie Cyrus Jones for the Patriots. The team desperately needs somebody competent to handle the punt return duties, because even though Julian Edelman is excellent at the job, it's now time to start preserving Edelman's body. He's too important to the offense to be putting his body through that kind of added punishment all year long.
Jones' work in practice catching punts has been so-so, and it likely won't get any easier under the bright stadium lights.
4 p.m.: Preseason football will never be more than just preseason football, but even with that being said, there's a little something different about tonight.
For the first time since 2001, the Patriots will start the season without a man named Tom Brady as the starting quarterback. And so, there will be a distinctly different feel while watching Jimmy Garoppolo take snaps this summer.
Of course, there will be many more players and positions to watch in this one, but the quarterback always garners the most attention. That will be especially true this preseason.
As for the entirety of the game, we'll have it all covered right here in the live blog, from preseason updates through the final (merciful) whistle. Stay tuned throughout the evening for all news, analysis and updates as the Patriots' preseason officially gets underway.