Brady Leads New England by Steelers, 28-21

On the night when the The New England Patriots unveiled their 2014 Super Bowl Championship banner and opened the 2015 NFL regular season, the defending champs defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-21 at Gillette Stadium.

New England's victory highlighted a few positives and a few wrinkles the team will have to iron out in the coming weeks.

First off, Tom Brady was dominant all night long, as he shredded the Pittsburgh defense at will. Brady wrapped up his evening with an impressive stat line, as he went 25-32 for 288 yards and four touchdown passes. He also finished the game with a total quarterback passer rating of 143.8. In total, Brady hit seven different receivers, as he spread the ball all over the field.

As most could expect, Brady's top two targets Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski saw most of the action as the two combined for 16 receptions for 191 yards. Edelman led all receivers with 11 catches for 97 yards, while Gronk snagged five passes for 94 yards and accounted for three of New England's four scores on the evening.

Along with the two top threats Dion Lewis, who got the start and most of the action out of the backfield on the night, proved to be a key player in the win. Lewis accounted for 120 yards from scrimmage including 15 carries for 69 yards and four receptions for another 51 yards. The scrappy back did fumble near the goal line in the second half but was picked up by Gronkowski, who wisely jumped on the ball to keep possession for the team. Aside from the one bump in the road, Lewis looks like a real threat that could develop into a top option for New England in more high pressure situations later in the season. Let's hope he sets his alarm tonight and makes it to practice on time tomorrow.

Another bright spot for New England was the solid play of the three rookies (Tre' Jackson, David Andrews & Shaq Mason) who started along the interior of the offensive line. For the most part the trio played well, making no major mistakes. Combined with the veteran tackles, Nate Solder and Sebastian Vollmer, the front line yielded just two sacks for seven yards. Andrews especially looked good for an undrafted rookie free agent who was thrust into action after the top two centers on the depth chart were ruled inactive for the game.

While the offense played well most of the night, the defense didn't necessarily impress. They did hold true to their "bend but don't break" mantra for most of the night, but Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense did move the ball with relative ease all night long.

What was nice to see, however, was the goal line stand late in third quarter as Pittsburgh was driving with a chance to cut New England's lead down to just three points. The stop was indicative of the Pats defense over the past few years. Also, with the exception of a garbage time score with two seconds left on the clock, the Pats D stepped up big in the fourth quarter.

Overall, it was a quality win for New England. Sure there are some kinks that will need to be worked out as the season goes on but all things considered the Pats should be happy with the outcome.

To check out all of the stats, click here.

To check out what happened in the first half, click here.