The Texans beat the Patriots 20-9.
The Patriots started their 2023 preseason on Thursday night against the Houston Texans. They lost 20-9, with most of the game being played by backup players. The defense picked up where they left off last season. On the first play of the game, rookie C.J. Stroud threw an interception that was picked off by Jalen Mills. This was one of the two turnovers they got in the first half.

The second-year quarterback, Bailey Zappe, played the whole first half and one drive into the second half. Unfortunately, the offense didn’t get many yards or points because the offensive line had trouble blocking and opening holes.

But it’s still early in the season, so wins, losses, and production don’t matter yet. What does matter is that a lot of young players got more experience. For example, teenagers Christian Gonzalez and Keion White had good first games, which should be one reason to be hopeful.

Here are some of the other most important things to learn from the first of this summer’s three exhibition games.
WATCH it in HIGHLIGHTS…….

Now that the game against Houston is over, the Patriots have officially started their 2023 schedule. Next week, they’ll go to Green Bay for some important and telling practices with the Packers. After their Saturday night game against the Packers, they’ll go straight to Tennessee for more practices with the Titans.

There will be a lot more to learn from those two games and four joint workouts. But based on what we know so far after 11 training camp practices and one preseason game, the offense still has a lot of work to do before it can move the ball reliably. They’ve shown signs of it in practice over the last 10 days, but not so much in games, where they’ve mostly used their backups.

The Packers and Titans will be tough tests that will tell us a lot more about where the offense is at. Also, it looks like the starting defense will be as disruptive as usual, but they’ll also have to deal with some good company over the next two weeks.