I’m working in the right direction — Jimmy Garoppolo

“I haven’t really thought about it at all recently”. Linebacker Jamie Collins intercepted Saints backup quarterback Garrett Grayson on the Saints’ very next offensive play and took it the distance for a 43-yard pick-six.

Kraft is echoing sentiment that Patriots fans have voiced ever since the suspension of Brady was reinstated earlier in April. That’s something that likely didn’t sit well with Bill Belichick, but fortunately it happened in a preseason game and was most certainly a learning experience that we won’t see again during the regular season.

Week One of the New England Patriots preseason ended on a positive note versus the New Orleans Saints. They included Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman, Danny Amendola, Chris Hogan, Logan Ryan, Dion Lewis, and Rob Ninkovich.

– A.J. Derby, who is battling for the third tight end spot behind Rob Gronkowski and Martellus Bennett, looked solid in his first taste of National Football League action.

“The thing is the four turnovers”, said Payton. “It was good experience tonight just being put in a hard situation and then just seeing how the guys responded, how everybody responded and I think we reacted the right way”.

“You never know who you are going to get in preseason”, said Garoppolo. “We do a great job in practice mixing and matching with all the guys”.

“What did you think of Jimmy G?”

The Patriots defense chipped in with two touchdowns. The unique factor of this game was that the first three touchdowns were all followed by successful two point conversions. Derby has been a player who has made plays in camp but Thursday night was one of his most complete showings yet as he showed up both on offense and on special teams.

He made a few very impressive throws, including a 24-yard completion to Malcolm Mitchell and a 14-yard catch-and-run to Dobson. On the next play LeGarrette Blount powered into the end zone. Overall he had rushes of -2 yards, 1-yard, 12-yards, 1 yard (a touchdown), 3 yards, -2-yards, 4-yards, 4-yards, and -1-yard after finishing with 9 carries for 20 yards (2.2 avg). “He was playing well, so, hopefully, he will come back as soon as possible and keep rolling”.

Rookie quarterback Jacoby Brissett played the entire second half.

Fortunately, Stephen Gostkowski was there to clean up the mess, and his 38-yard field goal put the Patriots up 17-16 with 5:51 left in the half.

Running back Daniel Lasco, a 7th round pick, had 41 combined rushing and receiving yards, and made a terrific tackle on special teams.