The New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers 19-17, but it wasn’t as close as the final score. The Patriots led 19-3 late in the game as the first team defense absolutely destroyed the Panthers offense.
Edge defenders Trey Flowers and Chris Long led the way, but the secret star of the game was 3rd round rookie defensive tackle Vincent Valentine. No, he wasn’t perfect, but Valentine showed a lot of promise when playing on the first team line next to Malcom Brown. Valentine showed strength, agility, motor, and finesse to take down the ballcarrier in traffic.
I also thought that Marcus Cannon deserves a ton of credit for putting together the best performance on the offensive line. He gets a lot of flak when he comes up short, so it’s only fair that we give him praise when we don’t hear his name. I don’t know what offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia puts in Cannon’s breakfast cereal, but it seems to be working.
I cover all of these topics and more, including RB D.J. Foster, WR Chris Hogan, TE AJ Derby, TE Martellus Bennett, LB Jonathan Freeny, LB Elandon Roberts, and all the cornerbacks.
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