20 takeaways from Patriots-Panthers preseason game

BOSTON -- The preseason slate at Gillette Stadium has already come to an end. That's always a good thing.

Friday night's preseason game was a bit more entertaining than last week's opener vs. the Giants, and as a result, we've got some key takeaways to run through from New England's 20-10 victory. Twenty of them, in fact. They'll be broken up into two sections: One for the players expected to be first-team guys, and one for the players who are fighting to find roles and/or fill out the roster.

First-Team Takeaways

--We finally saw the offense in game action. It was bad. Then it was good. The first two drives led by Mac Jones were miserable, with the Patriots traveling a total of three yards on six plays on a pair of three-and-outs. The third drive was much better, though, with the Patriots marching 81 yards on 10 plays for a touchdown. It was the only offensive touchdown of the game.

It must be noted, though, that the Panthers' defense was comprised of backups, as Matt Rhule rested his starters.

Brian Hoyer got in for a quick series with the starters, too, completing two passes for 30 yards before the Patriots ended up punting.

Jones was a little skittish, throwing behind DeVante Parker on a slant on the first drive and throwing extremely high for an incompletion to Jakobi Meyers on the second drive. He settled down nicely with his 45-yard bomb to Nelson Agholor, though. 

--In terms of defensive personnel, it was Jalen Mills and Jonathan Jones as the outside corners, with Myles Bryant getting the first action in the slot. The Patriots seem pretty locked in to moving Jonathan Jones to the outside this year. He came up with a pass breakup on a third-down deep shot, forcing a Carolina punt.

Jones also had some tight coverage on a third-down deep incompletion to Keith Kirkwood to start the game.

--The pass rush showed up early. After giving up 30 yards on four plays on Carolina's second drive, the defense started pushing Carolina backward. Ja'Whaun Bentley blew up a screen for a loss of four yards on a first-and-10.

Deatrich Wise got around the edge for a sack on P.J. Walker on second down, and Josh Uche ended that drive with a third-down sack of his own.

The Panthers didn't play their starters, and they didn't even play their primary backup quarterback. Still, the Patriots held their offense to just three points and 192 total yards on the night. (The Panthers' lone touchdown was scored by their defense.)

--The spark on the Patriots' touchdown drive? It was Ty Montgomery. His numbers weren't huge, but he came up with a five-yard reception on a third-and-4, he ran for four yards on a second-and-3, and then he popped into the end zone for the score. That's two first downs and a touchdown in a very short stretch. Without that first catch, it would've been a third three-and-out in three series for the offense. Imagine the week of mayhem that would have followed that?

The realistic outlook is that no one player can replace James White, and it'll likely require a committee of sorts. Montgomery's performance on that drive showed that he could be useful in that regard.

--Tyquan Thornton suffered a shoulder injury. He was involved with the offense in the first quarter, getting his nose dirty with some blocking on Montgomery's touchdown run. He caught a pass along the right sideline later in the second quarter, but that was it.

The rookie has impressed this summer, to the point where it looked like he might have a case for leapfrogging Kendrick Bourne on the depth chart. A midsummer injury won't help with that, though.

--Speaking of Kendrick Bourne, he was not in uniform for this game. He got kicked out of Tuesday's practice for fighting, then played with the backups on Wednesday. After the game, Bill Belichick only said that Bourne "wasn't available."

It seems like Bourne might have taken a step back this week. But if Thornton misses any time, that might not matter.

--Christian Barmore took a 15-yard penalty for a late, unnecessary hit on QB P.J. Walker. James Ferentz also took a 15-yard penalty for delivering a hit on Kenny Robinson. That's the same Robinson whose celebration over a concussed Kristian Wilkerson kicked off the fights on the practice field on Wednesday. Ferentz's hit warranted a flag, but it wasn't egregious and didn't appear to be related to any of the tomfoolery from practice.

--In limited action, Damien Harris looked good. He ran for 18 yards on three carries. That's not remarkable on its own, but with the issues the offense has had on the practice field this summer, that has to be seen as a positive step. The flip side of that would be Rhamondre Stevenson, who ran for four yards on two carries and had a catch for no gain. If you add in Montgomery's rushing stats, it was 35 yards on nine carries for the top three running backs. Not great, going against the Panthers' backups.

--That being said, this wasn't the Patriots' top O-line. Both Trent Brown and Isaiah Wynn -- the presumed starting tackles -- didn't play, and neither did tackle Justin Herron. That left Mike Onwenu to play right tackle and Yodny Cajuste to play left tackle, with Ferentz working at right guard. Ferentz got bulldozed by Julian Stanford, leading to a sack of Mac Jones on the first third down of the game for New England's offense. 

--This was a nice drop in the bucket from Mac Jones, and a good finish by Nelson Agholor.

It's always a positive to pick up half of a football field on one play.

--Jonathan Jones had a very unpleasant welcome to the game. All 320 pounds of Ikem Ekwonu came down on top of him on the first snap of the night.

Ouch.

Second-Team Takeaways

--Lil'Jordan Humphrey is making a major push to make the roster. The 6-foot-4, 225-pound receiver led the team with 71 receiving yards on his five receptions. He also made a dynamite play on special teams, diving into the end zone and tossing the ball back into the field of play so a teammate could down the ball at the 4-yard line. It required some spectacular athleticism and all-out effort:

Humphrey had six catches for 62 yards and a touchdown last week against the Giants, so he's put together a couple of strong preseason performances that will force the Patriots to strongly consider his place on the team.

--Shaun Wade showed up, too, reading P.J. Walker's eyes will playing zone before stepping up and picking off a pass to kill a potential Panthers scoring drive.

Wade joined the team via trade as a rookie last year, but didn't see much action.  

The battle on the depth chart did loosen a bit with the Joejuan Williams and Malcolm Butler IR placements this week, but there's still some healthy competition forthcoming in that spot.

--That being said, Shaun Wade took down a teammate not once but twice in this game. On Myles Bryant's fumble recovery, Wade inadvertently undercut his fellow defensive backfield member. And on rookie Marcus Jones' attempt to fair-catch a punt, he got knocked off his spot by a flying Shaun Wade. 

It was preseason football.

--Marcus Jones later bobbled the ball to start a punt return, and Bill Belichick said the punt return game was a disappointment on the night. Marcus Jones did break a 20-yard return, but Myles Bryant had negative-1 return yards on his two chances.

--Jack Jones -- the other rookie CB named Jones -- had an interception in his hands but dropped it. He punished himself by doing pushups on the sideline after the Panthers punted.

--The backup pass rushers got after it late, with Anfernee Jennings forcing what would have been an intentional grounding/safety if not for an illegal use of the hands penalty on DaMarcus Mitchell. But the Patriots ended up not needing that safety, because Mitchell recorded a strip sack on the very next snap. Sam Roberts recovered the loose ball for a defensive touchdown to make it a 10-point victory.

--Tristan Vizcaino badly missed a 53-yard field goal attempt, but atoned for it by drilling a 51-yarder later in the game. It still looks like he's in Foxboro solely to save Nick Folk's leg from having too much work in the summer.

--This is not the most important note, but getting to knock someone down to the turf as an undrafted rookie in an NFL preseason must feel great:

Football.

Final Takeaway

Overall, it's still hard to get a great read on the Patriots. They had four drives with their No. 1 offense, with Mac Jones at the helm for three of them and Brian Hoyer running one, and they punted three times. They're committing a lot of penalties, taking 12 for 104 yards in this one. Their defense looks good thus far, but when they're going against No. 2's and 3's on the opposing depth chart, it remains challenging to project how that looks against real NFL offenses.

But we know more than we knew last week, which one supposes is what this time of year is all about.

Next week, the Patriots will want to work on avoiding fights during practice before getting their final preseason tune-up on Friday night in Vegas. 

You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.