Today in Patriots History
When Preseason Games were called Exhibition Games
This was the first game with a new helmet for the Boston Patriots,
ditching the tri-corner hat in favor of a maniacal Pat Patriot
August 10, 1961:
Vito (Babe) Parilli twice mustered the Boston Patriots for long scoring marches and a 14-3 victory over the New York Titans tonight in an exhibition game between American Football League teams.
August 10, 1963:
In a week two exhibition game the San Diego Chargers defeated the Boston Patriots 50-17. That Saturday night at Balboa Stadium would foreshadow the AFL title game held at the same site five months later, when
Keith Lincoln ran for 206 yards and added another 123 yards receiving, as the Chargers trounced the Pats 51-10 for that franchise's one and only championship.
August 10, 1968:
The Patriots lose to New Orleans in a Saturday night game at Tulane Stadium, 19-0.
Image 5 of 6 from the August 10, 1968 (vol. 78, iss. 64) publication of Michigan Daily.
digital.bentley.umich.edu
The two interleague games send the AFL Boston Patriots against the NFL New Orleans Saints at Tulane Stadium and the Kansas City Chiefs against the NFL Minnesota Vikings at Bloomington's Met Stadium. Both are night games, with 8 p.m. local starting times.
The Patriots will send their quarterback, Don Trull, against the Saints' Billy Kilmer, who threw the touchdowns for New Orleans in the game against Los Angeles. The Patriots have another new quarterback in Mike Taliaferro, formerly of the Jets.
August 10, 1969:
Boston Patriots 21, Cincinnati Bengals 13 in a Sunday afternoon preseason game at Doyt L. Perry Stadium in Bowling Green, Ohio.
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio, Aug. 10 (AP) -- Mike Taliaferro threw two touchdown passes in the first half today to lead the Boston Patriots to a 21-13 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals in an American Football League exhibition game.
August 10, 1975:
FOXBORO, Mass., Aug. 10 —Trying to quickly blot out the bitter memories of last year, the New York Giants scored three second?half touchdowns and opened their exhibition season with a convincing 28?14 victory over the New England Patriots tonight before a crowd of 40,726 at Schaefer Stadium.
It was the offense, ineffective at the outset last season, that showed significant early muscle in wiping out a 7?0 Patriot lead fashioned on a 44?yard touchdown pass from Jim Plunkett, who played only the opening period, to his former Stanford teammate, Randy Vataha.
August 10, 1981:
New England Patriots 34, Los Angeles Rams 21 at Anaheim Stadium.
The Pats went 4-0 in the preseason, then 2-14 in the regular season.
August 10, 1985:
New Orleans Saints 32, New England Patriots 20 at Sullivan Stadium.
The New England Patriots will open their exhibition schedule at home against New Orleans Aug. 10 but will play their other three exhibition games on the road.
www.latimes.com
August 10, 1991:
Washington Redskins 27, New England Patriots 6 at Foxboro Stadium. Saturday, August 10, 1991 - 7:30PM
The Patriots went 6-10 in 1991, a five-game improvement from the previous season.
Washington would go 14-2 in '91 and defeat Buffalo 37-24 in Super Bowl 26.
Terry Hoage scored on a 45-yard interception return 1:31 into the game and the Washington Redskins went on to an easy 27-6 exhibition victory Saturday night...
www.upi.com
Terry Hoage scored on a 45-yard interception return 1:31 into the game and the Washington Redskins went on to an easy 27-6 exhibition victory Saturday night over the New England Patriots.
Washington, 1-1 in the pre-season, jumped out to a 21-0 lead in the second quarter and was never threatened.
New England, 0-2, is 1-24 in its last 25 contests, pre-season or regular season, and has not won at home since Dec. 3, 1989. Saturday night's crowd of 16,757 was the team's lowest attendance at any type of home contest in the last 24 years.
The Redskins took a 7-0 lead when their defense scored on New England's first possession. On the third play from scrimmage, Hoage picked off a Hugh Millen pass intended for Irving Fryar and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. On Washington's first offensive possession, Earnest Byner carried on six of seven plays and capped the 51-yard drive with a 2-yard scoring run at 8:06.
Washington boosted its advantage to 21-0 at 8:36 of the second quarter. Mark Rypien marched the visitors 69 yards in nine plays and finished the effort with an 11-yard scoring pass to Stephen Hobbs.
New England got on the scoreboard at 13:56 of the second quarter when Jason Staurovsky kicked a 21-yard field goal. The Patriots had to settle for a field goal despite having first down at the Redskins' 3. Staurovsky added a 50-yard field goal at 11:49 of the third quarter.
New England, which struggled offensively last season, has scored just 13 points in its two exhibition games.
August 10, 2001:
FOXBOROUGH – It may be early in the preseason, but New England couldn’t have asked for a much better beginning following a 14-0 shutout of the Super Bowl runner-up New York Giants at Foxboro Stadium Friday night.
www.patriots.com
It may be early in the preseason, but New England couldn't have asked for a much better beginning following a 14-0 shutout of the Super Bowl runner-up New York Giants at Foxboro Stadium Friday night.
The Patriots defense held the Giants to 92 net yards of offense, and rookie kicker provided four field goals, including a 53-yarder on his first try. While there were certainly areas to work on, New England's defense never allowed their opponents any flow.
Always the coach, Bill Belichick said there was room for improvement on defense. The average person would be hard-pressed to find fault with anything. When the first-unit defense was on the field against New York's top offense, the Patriots forced Kerry Collins to go three-and-out on three of the first four series. The fourth series lasted just four plays and went for 11 yards before linebacker Bryan Cox intercepted a pass over the middle.
Third-down defense, a major problem for New England last season, was very strong. The Patriots held their guests to just 3-of-13 conversions (23 percent). New York, hurt by the absence of running back Tiki Barber and center Dusty Ziegler, were held to a minute 55 yards on 19 carries. The Giants quarterbacks were just 9-of-28 for 51 yards, but sacks by linebacker Maugaula Tuitele and safety Antwan Harris lowered the net passing yardage to a lowly 37 yards.
Linebacker Matt Chatham actually scored for the defense in the fourth quarter. He wrapped up running back Omar Bacon in the end zone for a safety, which made the score 11-0 at the time.
While the defense keyed the victory, the Patriots had plenty to feel good about on both offense and special teams. Quarterbacks Drew Bledsoe, Damon Huard and Tom Brady were all able to move the ball, combining to complete 20-of-30 passes for 214 yards. Michael Bishop struggled with the last offense, completing just 2-of-7 for 21 yards.
Bledsoe played the first two series, and nearly had a touchdown on the first drive. Starting from the New England 49-yard line, J.R. Redmond opened with a 5-yard run and Bledsoe hit Troy Brown for an 11-yard out pattern. His next attempt was a bomb down the right sideline for David Patten, who was two steps behind the closest defender. It would have been a walk-in, 35-yard scoring pass, but the ball was just inches out of Patten's reach. Throughout practice all week Bledsoe and Patten have hooked up for several long plays.
The drive stalled when Damien Woody had a bad snap on a shotgun play, but punter Brad Costello pinned the Giants at their own 1-yard line with a perfect 39-yard pooch. Tebucky Jones downed the ball for the first of several big plays in the kicking game.
The next big play came from Pochman on the next offensive series for New England. Starting at the New York 46, Bledsoe avoided a sack on first down and connected with Brown for 22 yards. Michael Strahan then abused the Patriots make-shift line on the next two plays, sacking Bledsoe twice for a combined 15 yards. Brandon Short helped on the first sack.
With the Patriots pushed back to the 35 on fourth-down, Pochman came on for his first professional attempt. He drilled the 53-yarder down the middle and gave New England a 3-0 lead.
Pochman made three more field goals in the game. He hit on attempts of 53, 23, 25 and 21, but missed a 43-yard try. Costello and Dan Hadenfledt combined to pin six of their eight punts inside the Giants' 20-yard line, including two at the 1-yard line. Sean Morey had a blocked punt in the fourth quarter, and the coverage units were strong all night.
The major area of concern for New England continued to be the red zone. Despite three trips inside New York's 20, the Patriots failed to come away with any touchdowns. The most agonizing of the three came with Huard at the helm in the second quarter following the Cox interception.
August 10, 2002:
Giants 22, Patriots 19 in preseason week one at Exit 44W
August 10, 2007:
Every football expert's favorite team to win the Super Bowl - well, not everyone, but close enough - gave what amounted to a sneak peek last night as the New England Patriots took on Tampa in their p…
www.metrowestdailynews.com
Among the missing were Randy Moss, Donte Stallworth, Benjamin Watson, and Laurence Maroney. So much for getting an idea of how this explosive new unit is going to tear apart opposing defenses. So much for seeing how Tom Brady was going to click with Moss and Stallworth, his prized new targets, who figure to blaze paths downfield rarely tread by Patriot receivers.
In all, Brady went 5-for-7 for 34 yards. Three of those completions went to Faulk, the others to Welker and Gaffney.
Matt Cassel (4-for-7 for 32 yards) followed Brady, and on his first series, engineered a 65-yard scoring drive, with newcomer Sammy Morris, who got the lion's share of carries due to Maroney's absence, going in from 2 yards out.
Looking good on this scoring drive was wide receiver Kelley Washington, who had yet to distinguish himself during camp. He made two terrific catches in this series. Rookie Matt Guttierrez also engineered a scoring drive in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 23-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski.
Defensively, Thomas did play most of his defensive snaps on the inside, at the ``Mike'' position next to Tedy Bruschi. On the first series, a three-and-out by Tampa, he pressured Jeff Garcia into a hurried throw - an incomplete pass - on a blitz. He did make a number of tackles, flying all over the field.
August 10, 2017:
Expert recap and game analysis of the Jacksonville Jaguars vs. New England Patriots NFL game from August 10, 2017 on ESPN.
www.espn.com
Chad Henne hit Keelan Cole on a 97-yard touchdown pass, Corey Grant scored on a 79-yard run and the Jacksonville Jaguars feasted on a Patriots lineup without Brady and Rob Gronkowski -- or much defense at all -- to beat the defending NFL champions in their exhibition opener.
Garoppolo completed 13 straight passes at one point, finding Austin Carr on a 3-yard touchdown pass at the end of the first half and then K.J. Maye from 5 yards out to start the second and make it 17-17.
But the New England defense followed by giving up another one-play scoring drive -- this one Grant's run down the left sideline to make it 24-17.
August 10, 2023:
Expert recap and game analysis of the Houston Texans vs. New England Patriots NFL game from August 10, 2023 on ESPN.
www.espn.com
The Patriots gave most of their projected starters the night off, including quarterback Mac Jones.
Backup Bailey Zappe started in his place and went 12 of 14 for 79 yards, playing the entire first half and one series in the third quarter. His best throw of the night was a 27-yard dart to Tyquan Thornton.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick said coming in with several offensive linemen dealing with injuries contributed to the offense being unable to finish some drives. “It’s tough for the backs. It’s tough for the quarterback,” Belichick said. “We didn’t have a lot of space on the offense for the most part tonight.”
Rookie quarterback Malik Cunningham, who went undrafted out of Louisville, added a late 9-yard touchdown run. Patriots rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez had three tackles and forced a fumble.
Gonzalez, the Patriots' first-round pick, got a fast welcome to the NFL. He was setting up to tackle Collins after his reception on the first play from scrimmage. But Collins lowered his shoulder and sent Gonzalez stumbling backward.
