Can we stop the run?
Can we run the ball?
Who wins the turnover battle?
With the notable exception of the Steven Jackson game (wasn't that Miami as well?), do the Patriots traditionally keep doing something that doesn't work throughout a game (unless of course nothing is working and they have had those games too) or that the team shows they have not grasped yet?
I don't expect to see a huge amount of outside zone runs. Will they keep practicing and adding more as the season progresses? Probably. If the first two go for negative yards, I'd expect more power running plays instead that were successful in the preseason. They were a GREAT running team last year (top ten in yards and YPC) with most of those players returning so it seems to be just worry about the zone system versus actual skill and ability when there's nothing indicating the zone system is all they're going to run this year.
As for stopping the run - it comes to the edge play and the second level. That was the struggle more than Godchaux last year - run defense is the epitome of team skill and effort with the DL occupying as much gap as possible with the second level filling quickly. While I won't say the gap management last year was great (it wasn't) it also wasn't terrible. When paired with inability to set the edge and LBs that simply were either slow or unable to make the proper fills of those gaps especially when they broke down at the end of the season and the team result wasn't stellar.
Turnovers is interesting. They Were #8 in differential last year (+7). That was with JC however who had 8 of their 23 INTs (a full 1/3d). Dolphins were middle of the pack at #17 (0) - split across INTs and FUM. So it would seem on the surface a "pick em" in this category.
I would counter that there are myriad other questions about the team that also apply. Is the OL healthy and able to protect? If Mac is hit early, he may regress into his "tunneling" (a military term where you lose broad situational awareness and focus on a very small area of the battlefield) that hurt him last year where his internal clock was too fast and he made poor decisions. Can they either confuse Tua or slow the WRs from their routes enough to do the same to him conversely? Is Barmore + Judon enough in the pass rush? There are a lot of rookies on this team - are they ready?
In other words, this is a typical first game in today's NFL "hurry up" preseason world. The fans don't know very much, haven't seen very much, and have very little data to go on. So we are all relying on a notoriously agenda driven media (clicks vs data provision) versus our own experience.
