FOXBOROUGH — When it's the first preseason game and your opponent holds out 29 players, including all of their starters and key reserves, it's impossible to take a whole lot out of the Patriots' 48-18 thrashing of the Commanders on Friday night at Gillette Stadium.
Doesn't help when the passing game doesn't attempt to do very much, and your franchise quarterback ends his first drive with a fumble (caused by a mix-up by your two rookie starters on the left side of the line) that his coach called "a bad decision."
But what you try to do is look from 10,000 feet. How did it look? How did it sound? Could you see something happening?
Those are the questions to try to stick with, and maybe some individual performances before we dig into the tape.
Basically, this looked like the complete opposite of the previous regime. What you saw was a football team that was already showing great signs of being molded into the identity of the coach, which is always important in a successful organization.
Remember Mike Vrabel's introductory press conference? The final question he fielded was about what type of offense he wanted to run, and how that might factor into his decision on who he would hire as offensive coordinator.
Near the end of his response, Vrabel dialed down on his vision for his football team.
"We're going to demand effort and finish," Vrabel said. "People ask what non-negotiables are. Our effort and our finish is going to be the contract that we make with our teammates. That will be my job to make sure (it happens)."
Simple, to be sure. But when you're trying to restore a formerly great franchise that had fallen on hard times with consecutive four-win seasons, you have to start small. You can't do great things without doing the little things.
Did you see fight in the Patriots in a meaningless preseason game?
Hell yeah, until the final whistle.
Even Drake Maye noticed it after being subbed out before the end of the first quarter.
"I think what the guys did tonight, everybody playing, playing hard, blocking, tackling, running around I think just kind of for full four quarters. I thought we kept playing," Maye said. "I think we're kind of starting to build something, that we're going to start to build an identity. That's what coach is talking about.
Did you see finish?
Hell yeah, until the final whistle.
You saw first-round pick Will Campbell drill two backup defensive backs into the ground on their backs (which he should be doing). Running back after running back — Rhamondre Stevenson, Antonio Gibson, TreVeyon Henderson, Terrell Jennings and Lan Larison — finished off their runs with a viciousness. I mean, Javon Baker was making tackles on special teams, for crying out loud. Little Efton Chism was breaking tackles and trying to run over people.
The first step in building a program and a team is declaring exactly what you expect, show them how to do it, and then demand they do it again day after day.
That was something Vrabel's predecessor never could do. Like ever. It started in his opening press conference, and continued throughout a season that predictably spiraled out of control. For a guy who talked about north stars, his team looked like they didn't know what end was up.
Contrast that to Vrabel, who had this sign in the team meeting room:
PATRIOTS' TEAM IDENTITY
1. Effort and finish.
2. Ball security and ball disruption.
3. Details, technique and fundamentals.
4. Make great decisions.
We covered effort and finish.
The Patriots turned the Commanders over twice, but Maye's lack of ball security obviously irked Vrabel.
"That's a bad decision," he said. "I think we're going to need better from him. I think he knows that. That's obvious. It wasn't there. We just have to be able to find a way to get rid of the football or take a sack and punt and play defense."
I like how Vrabel held Maye accountable, and he seems to be losing a little patience over the continued issues.
The Patriots looked like they were on the details, were prepared well for this game, and are being coached really well - and the players are buying in, due to the success they saw this week in two outings against the Commanders. I mean, they didn't have a penalty until late in the fourth quarter. Last year's offensive line by itself would have had six by now. This was a professional-looking outfit, in just the first preseason game.
Vrabel also sprinkled in some reinforcement during his postgame press conference.
"I think TreVeyon read it out and hit the hole and everybody else blocked and finished and did all those good things," Vrabel said of Henderson's 100-yard kickoff return to open the game.
"I think his play strength stood out to me from the sideline," Vrabel said of Efton Chism. "I think it's the way he blocks, his ability to catch the ball in traffic. ... Kind of ran through a tackle and ran through contact. ... I think his play strength to me is what stood out."
"I think the play demeanor showed," Vrabel said of Will Campbell and Jared Wilson. "... I certainly did see their play demeanor kind of stand out. I think that's a good place to start, is with that. Being downfield, finishing through the whistle and everything, we embrace that here."
"I thought operationally we were pretty good," Vrabel said. "It's a good start for everything that we were talking about. Give us some more to coach. We have to tackle better. We have to throw the football better going forward. I thought this was a good place to start."
"Yeah, I think that's fantastic," Vrabel said of Javon Baker's two special teams tackles. "When you have players, especially receivers, that can create a role, that can help you, be big, physical, everything that we see out of Javon as a receiver, when they can embrace that as special teams players, guys that are big and physical and fast and willing, that translates to special teams. ... When you do those things, your teammates get excited. Hopefully his confidence continues to grow."
What you saw on Friday night was just the beginning. We don't know where it will land by the end of the season, whether the Patriots have enough talent or injury luck to emulate what the Commanders did last season, Dan Quinn's first as head coach - after being fired from his first coaching job like Vrabel.
But Friday night allows you to see the path, and that they seem to be on a good one.
In the vision and mold of their head coach, just like he wanted from the first day.