DETOIT — When Detroit’s offense was slicing through the Patriots’ defense on Saturday night, it was doing it against New England’s top players.
There are times in preseason games when one team uses its starters while the opponent does not. The Patriots still did not have Albert Haynesworth and Shaun Ellis, two of the newcomers they are hoping will improve their defense. They started Mark Anderson at end in place of Andre Carter, another newcomer who has looked excellent thus far.
Otherwise, though, it was pretty much New England’s starting defensive team that was shredded for 300 yards in the first half. James Sanders, who had missed the first two games, was back and hoping to gain the upper hand over Brandon Meriweather in the battle for a starting safety berth opposite Patrick Chung, although at times Sanders and Meriweather played together with Chung on the bench.
Sanders did not stand out. The two members of the defensive backfield who had the toughest time were cornerbacks Kyle Arrington and Devin McCourty.
McCourty was beaten several times when he had decent coverage, but quarterback Matthew Stafford lofted balls over him to his receivers. The fact that the Lions were operating in a no-huddle system did not help. But it was not the problem, McCourty insisted.
“We’ve been working on that,” McCourty said. “You’ve got to come out and be ready to play.”
On the other side, Arrington got much of the work with Leigh Bodden out again. Arrington played solidly last season, enough to earn a new contract this year. But the former Hofstra star was beaten for two Lions touchdowns. At least he was the closest New England player on each of the scoring passes. He indicated the problems were not all his.
“Early on, yeah, I gave up a play,” said Arrington, who also had a sack and was called for pass interference. “There are always situations you wish you could get back. That’s the life of a corner. I made some good plays, too. The main thing is to get consistent from here.”
While the Lions did a great job creating tempo with their no-huddle offense, the Patriots never got in a rhythm on offense.
That was especially disappointing since Tom Brady had spoken about that issue last week and made it a point of emphasis. With the Detroit defense chasing him all over the field, Brady did more running to avoid Lions than creating a tempo of his own.
“In practice, it was better, but when you get on the game field where it actually means something, it didn’t really show up,” he said.
He did not have any completions to Chad Ochocinco. He never threw in Deion Branch’s direction. Ochocinco not only did not have a catch, but he was called for offensive pass interference, negating a 15-yard completion to Rob Gronkowski.
“We communicate quite a bit,” Brady said of spending so much time with Ochocinco. “That’s what it takes. He hasn’t had the luxury of an offseason program. We really have to cram a lot of stuff in, but he’s very receptive to it. He’s very competitive. He wants to do the right thing, as we all do.”
The Pats headed straight to the airport, which is about 20 or 25 minutes from Ford Field, after the game. They were able to return to Providence but did not get to Foxboro until after 4 a.m. Several players reported they were safe through Twitter.
“Safe arrival back to Boston, there’s a light but steady rainfall and the air/rain has a heavy salt water smell. Hoping all are safe,” Ochocinco tweeted.
Gronkowski tweeted that he and Dane Fletcher made it back home, but did not have any power.
The New England reporters who covered the game were not as fortunate. None of the nine newspaper and Internet reporters was able to get back home Sunday as scheduled. Coach Bill Belichick normally conducts a telephone conference call on the afternoon after road games, but with all the problems in New England, that was not possible. Among other issues, there were power outages at Gillette Stadium. Team officials announced that there would be no practice Monday.
That means there will be only two days of work before taking on the Giants in the final preseason game, on Thursday. Still, that is better than the Giants. Their game with the Jets was postponed from Saturday until Monday night because of Irene.
As if the loss were not bad enough, the Pats got beat up, too.
Starting right guard Dan Connolly left in the first quarter with an ankle injury. Connolly was seen after the game with a compress on his foot. He was replaced by Rich Ohrnberger.
In the second quarter, after scoring the Pats’ first touchdown, Wes Welker went to the sidelines with what was described as a neck injury. He was hurt when he made a tackle after a Brady interception. Welker told a reporter as he was walking out that he was “OK,” as he put it. Brady wants him back as quickly as possible.
“There’s nobody tougher than Wes Welker. Mentally, physically, he’s as good as there is. He’s a huge part of our offense,” the quarterback said.
Julian Edelman was next. The receiver/returner has missed part of training camp with an undisclosed injury. He went to the sidelines and was treated for what looked to be a hand, finger or wrist problem.
Also, cornerback Jonathan Wilhite apparently was also injured, although the nature of the injury was not immediately reported.
The first cuts, from 90 to 80 players, must be made Tuesday.
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