Patriots ‘put on a good effort’ vs Panthers: 3 players Belichick praised

The New England Patriots put on a “good effort” in a 20-10 preseason victory against the Carolina Panthers Friday night at Gillette Stadium.

Fans got to see a jacked-up Mac Jones in the first quarter and although the offense started off shaky, the second-year quarterback did finish his night leading the team on an 81-yard touchdown drive.  The highlight of that drive was a nice 45-yard throw to Nelson Agholor to set up a two-yard touchdown run by Ty Montgomery.

With the Patriots defense holding the Panthers’ offense at bay, the 7-3 lead stood until late in the second quarter when the Nick Folk extended it to 10-3.

Rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe, who took over I that second quarter, played the entire second half.  Despite throwing a pick-6 to tie the game, he did impress with some nice throws mainly to wide receiver Lil ’Jordan Humphrey.

The New England Patriots defense looked solid all night

The Patriots did retake the lead on a field goal and then sealed the deal on defense as DaMarcus Mitchell forced this fumble late in the fourth quarter that was recovered by Sam Roberts in the end zone.

In all, there were players who continued to impress, but mostly Bill Belichick was happy about the work the team put in during practice this week that showed on the football field.  There are still areas of improvement, but the effort was there, and the coach was happy about the progress.

"“We had a good week here, a couple good practice days against Carolina, and then some of the guys that didn’t get as many reps in practice got more reps tonight, so go a pretty good look at everybody,” Belichick said during his postgame presser.  “We’ll look at the film here and she how things went.  You know, another step in the process, and we’ll just keep grinding it out here.”"

As Belichick and the Patriots set their attention on a week of practice with the Las Vegas Raiders, here are 3 players who received praise from the New England Patriots head coach following the preseason win.