New England Patriots 43 - Cleveland Browns 6
The Browns traveled to rainy (of course) Foxborough for a matchup of the two teams who consummated the biggest blockbuster of the offseason. Tom Brady looked to make a statement in his return to his former team, but instead it was Colt McCoy and the Patriots defense who made the statement.
After the Patriots received the opening kickoff, the tandem of McCoy and Ross marched them down the field, but they were forced to settle for a FG inside the ten. After a Brady incompletion to start his Browns career, the very next pass was intercepted by rookie MLB Terrance Carswell (the player the Patriots selected with the Browns #9 pick). The Patriots again failed to punch it in, settling for another field goal.
The Patriots really got things going in the 2nd quarter however, when McCoy found both Gronk and Julius Thomas for short TDs and Ross ran in one of his own. Two consecutive sacks which lead to a safety by Carswell capped off an impressive 23 point outburst to give the Patriots a 29-0 halftime lead.
The Browns finally broke through in the 3rd, when Brady connected with Greg Little on 4th-and-goal from the two, however the Patriots stuffed a two point try. The Pats answered when McCoy found Roddy White for another goal-line TD.
The Pats capped the scoring in the 4th with a 1-yard run by Ross before running out the clock on their next possession.
Colt McCoy was excellent in his Patriots debut, going 13 of 17 for 156 yards, 3 TDs and 0 INTs.
Brady (it's weird writing his name second) struggled, going 11 of 23 for 142 yards with 1 TD and 3 INTs.
Ross was solid all day, carrying 20 times for 119 yards and 2 scores.
The Cleveland running tandem couldn't get anything going all day against the Patriots D, with Dyer and Hillis combining for only 10 total yards on 10 carries.
Gronk was the leading receiver for the Pats, catching 4 balls for 63 yards and a TD. Second year WR Nick Schexnayder (taking over the slot role vacated by Welker) and Demaryius Thomas added 3 catches each while Julius Thomas and Roddy White converted their only catches into 2-yard TDs.
Torry Sanders, Ben Watson, and Massaquoi each had 3 catches for the Browns, while Greg Little had the TD.
The Patriots D was stifling all day, allowing only 125 yards of total offense, including 3 sacks, 3 picks, a fumble recovery and a safety. Terrance Carswell stole the show in his debut, totaling 8 tackles (6 solo, 6 for a loss), 2 sacks, an INT and the aforementioned safety. Jerod Mayo, moving back to LOLB with Carswell's debut, also played extremely well, getting a pick and recovering a fumble (forced by McCourty). Jimmy Wilson also had an INT.
The Browns managed to sack McCoy twice (one by Rob Ninkovich, who came to Cleveland in the Brady trade) and made a couple nice red zone stands early, but otherwise were unable to slow the Pats down too much.
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gg UMX! I have a feeling better things are to come for Brady and the Browns, I was just on a roll in this one.
Very relieved to see McCoy not miss a beat with my offense. He didn't try many deep passes, but then that's never really been my game to begin with. For the short stuff, he hit most of what I'm accustomed to Brady hitting. And it's just one game, but obviously I could not be more thrilled with the performance of Carswell, who made a strong play for DPOW.