Pats Get First Win

The Patriots bounced back from last week's somewhat shocking season opening loss with a 30-7 win over the Minnesota Vikings, yesterday. 

While the lopsided score may lead many to believe that week one's second half collapse in Miami was nothing more than an aberration, it's important to keep in mind that an Adrian Peterson-less Minnesota is not nearly as good a team as the Dolphins ran out there.

It is very early in the season, but New England's offense has looked extremely lackluster so far. Both the passing and rushing attacks combined for less than 300 yards, yesterday, and actually produced less first downs than Minnesota. They were able to stay turnover free throughout the game, though they converted just five of their 14 third down attempts and scored just twice in four red zone trips.

Tom Brady stayed upright much more than he did last week as the line did a better job of protecting him. While he was given more time to find his targets, they proved to be challenging to find. Aside from Julian Edelman who caught six passes for 81 yards and a touchdown, Brady had very few options of where to go with the ball. In fact, he completed just nine passes for only 68 yards to the rest of his receivers, which is just not going to cut it against better teams.

The running game wasn't overly fantastic though it was more impressive than the rather weak passing attack, as the Pats' backs rushed for 150 yards as a unit. 101 of those yards and the only rushing score of the day came courtesy of Stevan Ridley who did his best to help Edelman and Brady secure the win.

For all of the issues seen in the offense, the defense bounced back quite nicely against a far less explosive team then they saw last week. The secondary had a field day picking off four of Vikings' starter Matt Cassel's passes, while the big guys up front sacked the former Patriot six times.

While the defense was more impressive than in week one, New England's real success came in the form of their special teams. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski accounted for 12 points connecting on all three of his extra point attempts and all three of his field goals, including a 48-yard boot. Edelman came up big with 66 yards on his four punt returns with a long return of 34 yards, which set the Pats up for one of their scores. Finally, starting defensive end Chandler Jones made the games biggest play on a 48-yard field goal attempt by Minnesota's Blair Walsh. Jones busted through the line, reached out his massive arms and batted down Walsh's kick then scooped up the bouncing ball and took it to the house for the 58-yard score.

While the Patriots got their first win of the season and improved as a team, they still have room to grow. Luckily for them, their next game is against the Oakland Raiders, another team with less than stellar capabilities. Next week should be another chance for the Pats offense to get rolling and the defense to get a little more momentum before they meet some of the tougher teams on their schedule.

Check out all the game's stats here.