Well the New England Patriots didn’t look so hot on an August Saturday night in the Motor City, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to panic.  Looking back at the game, some things stand out.

• Poor offensive line play.
• An erratic offense while the first team was on the field.
• The officials were in “preseason” mode and they themselves were less than stellar.
• A majority of the defense either didn’t play or didn’t make the trip. 19 players were left in Foxboro.

One thing I do know about the team is that the coaching staff will not let the players soon forget the effort, or lack there of, anytime soon.  There will be no excuses for their play and lots of credit given to Detroit’’ staff and players who obviously came to play.

Bill Belichick will use this game to his advantage for as long as he can make it a motivational tool.  You can fully expect that once the season starts in Miami on September 12 this team will be ready to play.

Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene knocked out the power Sunday at Gillette Stadium canceling Belichick’s day after conference call. The team returned from Detroit around 4 a.m. Sunday morning and had the day off.  On Monday there was no practice and Gillette was still without power so the staff and players went elsewhere for meetings, film study and injury treatments on Monday.

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Instead of having media availability with the players in the locker room, select players were made available via conference calls.

Here is New England head coach Bill Belichick’s conference call transcript with the local Boston media on Monday afternoon.

Patriots defensive lineman Andre Carter had a conference call with the Boston media and here’s what he had to say.

Tom Brady made his weekly appearance on the WEEI’s Dennis & Callahan morning show on “Patriots Monday” and this is what he had to say.

Linebacker Jerod Mayo spoke with the local media today via conference call.

Today is the day that NFL teams must cut their roster from 90 to 80 players with a final cutdown to the 53-man roster coming on Saturday September 3^rd.  There are a lot of players who are hoping to hold on for a few more days.

With cuts on the way expect the patriots to be active in the trade market looking to build more depth into their 2012 draft positions.  Among the players who could be moved are S Brandon Meriweather and former UConn Husky CB Darius Butler as well as DT’s Landon Cohen and Darryl Richard.

Among the players cut on Monday were:

• S James Sanders
• CB Jonathan Wilhite
• LS Matt Katula
• DE Clay Nurse
• K Chris Koepplin
• DT Kade Weston
• TE Garrett Mills
• WR Tyree Barnes
• WR Darnell Jenkins
• DB Malcom Williams
• OL Mark Wetterer

The team also made a few signings inking WR Tiquan Underwood, S Ross Ventrone and LS James Dearth.

Patriots rookie QB Ryan Mallett and Red Sox infield prospect Will Middlebrooks are best buds.

Wes Welker injured his neck on Saturday night and he said afterward that he was fine.  It was just one of several injuries Patriots players suffered against Detroit.

The coaches tried all sorts of rotations at safety on Saturday night looking for the right combination.  They paired Sanders and Meriweather; Patrick Chung and Sergio Brown; Chung and James Ihedigbo and Brown and Ihedigbo during the game.  Each pairing played at least 2 series together.

Did you know that the first preseason match up between the Patriots and Lions was on August 25, 1969 in Montreal, Canada?  The Patriots were still in the AFL as the merger was a year away.  The Lions won 22-9 in the exhibition game played at Jarry Park in front of 8,212 fans.  Patriots broadcaster Gino Cappelletti played in the game kicking three field goals for all of the Patriots points.

Greg Gumbel and Dan Dierdorf were joined at halftime by New England owner Robert Kraft who talked CBA and about his late wife Myra.  Here’s the transcript of Robert Kraft’s halftime interview on CBS.

While we are on the subject of Kraft and the passing of his wife if you haven’t read it you need to read this wonderful and sad article written by Yahoo! Sports Michael Silver.

Among the many players, past and present, who have given contributions to the Myra Kraft Giving Back Fund are Tom Brady, Junior Seau, Matt Cassel and the Manning brothers – Peyton and Eli.

Like he has done in the past, last Wednesday, Belichick took the team to the movies where they saw “The Fighter” and met Micky Ward, who spoke to the team.

WR/KR Brandon Tate is on the bubble for making the team and he’s focusing on trying to get better.

NFL Films announced on Monday that in 2009 they had the unprecedented full season wiring of Belichick for a NFL Films series documentary “A Football Life”. Part 1 airs on September 15 and Part 2 is on September 22 on the NFL Network.

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After making several cuts to get the roster down to the 80-man limit for 4 p.m. on Tuesday the Patriots ended up signing three players in return.  The team announced that they have signed WR Tiquan Underwood, S Ross Ventrone and LS James Dearth.

Underwood was a 7^th round pick of the Jacksonville Jaguars out of Rutgers.  He played 10 games for the Jags in 2010 after spending the 2009 season on the practice squad.  He was released last week.

Ventrone, an undrafted free agent out of Villanova, was with the Patriots last season playing in the preseason before being cut and re-signed in October for the practice squad.

Dearth is a former New York Jets long snapper and tight end having played with the team from 2001-2009. Originally a 6^th round pick of the Cleveland Browns in 1999 out of Tarleton State, he spent two seasons in Cleveland before going to the Jets.  He was signed by Washington in 2010 but waived before the season started.  San Diego then signed Dearth as a long snapper and before playing in a game for the Chargers he ended up being placed on IR with a foot injury.

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The New England Patriots some cuts more than 24 hours early today.  The NFL mandates that teams have their rosters cut from 90 to 80 by 4 p.m. ET on Tuesday.  I don’t think the Patriots were quite sitting at 90 but here are the players that were released:

• S James Sanders
• CB Jonathan Wilhite
• LS Matt Katula
• DE Clay Nurse
• K Chris Koepplin
• DT Kade Weston
• TE Garrett Mills
• WR Tyree Barnes
• WR Darnell Jenkins
• DB Malcom Williams
• OL Mark Wetterer

The biggest names amongst the cuts are obviously Sanders, Wilhite and Katula.

Sanders, a former starter, was projected as the third safety and he was scheduled to make $2.8 million this season which the team probably thought was a bit pricey for a part-time player.

Wilhite was seemingly on the bubble of making the team all preseason as it tries to straighten out its secondary woes of last year.

Katula was struggling as a long snapper and Bill Belichick says he expects to sign another one in the next few days thereby negating using LB Rob Ninkovich in that role.

Among the others who were released was Williams, who was a 7^th round pick in this year’s draft.  All the other players were long shots at best to make the team that is very deep on the defensive line and at wide receiver.

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