The New England Patriots were in their usual “show nothing in the pre season mode” last night against the Buccaneers.  Tom Brady played more than he usually does in the pre-season as he completed 5 of 7 passes for 34 yards.  Matt Cassel usually shows up big in the pre-season but he wasn’t much of a factor last night as he completed 4 of 7 passes for 32 yards and he ran the ball 3 times for 13 yards (4.3 ypc).  Undrafted rookie Matt Gutierrez of Idaho State finished up the game at QB for the Patriots and he completed 6 of 10 passes for 66 yards.  Sammy Morris handled the bulk of the running game with 9 carries for 27 yards (3.0 ypc) with a TD.  Heath Evans carried the football 6 times for 21 very tough yards (3.5 ypc).  Kevin Faulk was busy as usual with 4 carries for 12 yards (3.0 ypc) and 3 catches for 26 yards (8.7 avg).  The Patriots offense looked sluggish as a whole as they wound up running the ball 25 times for 89 yards (3.6 ypc) and they completed 15 of 24 passes for 124 yards.

The Patriots got pushed around a little bit in the running game by the Bucs who carried the football 36 times for 169 yards (4.7 ypc).  The Bucs also completed 14 of 22 passes for 110 yards.  As bad as the Patriots played last night they had a chance to win the game until Matt Bryant kicked a 32-yard field goal for the Bucs as time expired.  All that ever matters in the pre-season for the Patriots is that they stay healthy so don’t read much into their performance last night against the Bucs.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=270810027

Heath Evans has been a good fullback for a while now for the Patriots.  He played in 16 games (3 starts) last season for the Patriots and he carried the ball 27 times for 117 yards (4.3 ypc) and he caught 7 passes for 34 yards (4.9 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Evans has now played in 89 games (7 starts) and he has carried the football 112 times for 417 yards (3.7 ypc) and he has also caught 33 passes for 226 yards (6.8 avg) with 1 TD grab.  Converted TE Garrett Mills will back up Evans at fullback.  He did not play a down as a rookie but he likely would be a really good receiver out of the backfield.

The Patriots have acquired cornerback Dante Wesley from the Chicago Bears for an undisclosed draft pick.  Wesley played in 13 games last season for the Bears and he made 10 tackles.  Wesley will provide the Patriots with some much needed depth at corner and he likely will also help out on special teams.

Stephen Gostkowski got off to a rough start last season but he was hitting clutch kicks by the time the games got big for the Patriots.  Look for him to be much better in his 2nd season in the NFL.  He wound up hitting 76.9% of his field goals and 43 of 44 extra point attempts.  He hit 17 of 21 field goals of 39 yards or less and he nailed 3 of 5 field goals of 40+ yards.  He finished his rookie season with 103 points in 16 games for an average of 6.4 points per game.  Look for him to improve on that number as Coach Belichick starts to trust him more on long field goal attempts.

The Patriots have re-signed rookie running back Justise Hairston and they’ve placed him on the Injured Reserve list ending his season.  Hairston injured his hamstring in camp and he will have a long time to recover.