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After watching the first pre-season game for the New England Patriots this year on Thursday, it was a dominating performance for them. The Patriots were able to beat out the Jacksonville Jaguars with a 47-12 rout. For just the backup to perform that great was amazing to see, but lets break them down to each side of the game.

On the offensive side of the field, they were performing great. Coach Belichick had Brian Hoyer as the starting quarterback on the field and allowed some of the rookies to perform to examine their abilities. Hoyer was throwing beautifully and commanding the offense with setting up blocks. He was playing for the first half of the game and ended up with 15/21 completions, 171 yards, and 1 Touchdown. That one touchdown he threw was to Taylor Price who made an exceptional catch in the end zone and kept both his feet on the ground.

Shane Ridley performed well this past Thursday being able to rush for 64 yards in 16carries with 2 Rushing Touchdowns and 47 yards with 7 catches with 1 for a Touchdown. He was looking almost like the BenJarvus Green-Ellis style of running of bruising the defense when he was running the ball. He was making those short screen catches shows the versatility Ridley has, which is always a need in this Patriots offense.

The rookie quarterback, Ryan Mallet, was doing great in the pocket as well. He was doing well in handling the offense and being able to see what the defense was doing. He went 12/19 completions, 164 yards, and threw 1 Touchdown. Although he was throwing fine, he did make that one mistake of not being able to watch the clock at one point and had a delay of game call. A minor rookie mistake but only time will fix that. Other than that he threw one beautiful pass to Slater who was then able to take the ball 43 yards.

The Defensive side was interesting as well. Coach Belichick showed a few teasers watching him go from a 3-4 setup to a 4-3 hybrid. Testing the depth, there was some noticeable pass rush seen from the line. Dane Fletcher was able to make plenty of tackles through gaps being able to set them back for losses. Among his five total tackles, he was able to make two of them for losses in the back field. Former Chicago Bears Defensive End Mark Anderson had a great debut in the second half and was noticeable how his presence alone affected the game. The defense were able to get 4 sacks overall through out the game. The third down efficiency that Coach Belichick was stating that they had to work was seen here where the Jaguars were only able to convert on 3 of their 13 3rd down plays. Seeing how they were able to accomplish this without all of their veterans, just makes my anxiousness to see the first season game going insane. The next Patriots game will be this Thursday on August 18th, 2011 at 07:30 PM ET and the Patriots will playing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on their turf.

The Red Sox on the side note have lost in their last two games against the Seattle Mariners. The Mariners were able to score 5 runs against Beckett in the first inning. Wakefield did not get any luck in his fourth attempt to get his 200th win. The Red Sox need to conjure up their efforts and to win the next remaining games to maintain their AL leading record with the New York Yankees only .5 games behind them.

Will the Patriots be as dominant as they were in their first preseason game when they play in the regular season? Will the Red Sox be able to maintain their position as the best team in the American League? Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.