FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Opening night couldn't have gone much better for the New England Patriots, who unveiled their new Super Bowl championship banner in a stirring pregame ceremony and then defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-21 on Thursday night at rain-soaked Gillette Stadium.
The headliners, as they often are, were quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Brady, who never got into a rhythm in the preseason as he balanced football and the courtroom, flipped the regular-season switch and completed 19 passes in a row at one point, which was a franchise record. He finished 25-of-32 for 288 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.
Gronkowski, who didn't play in the preseason as a healthy scratch, caught three touchdown passes and finished with five receptions for 94 yards.
Brady and Gronkowski hadn’t connected during the preseason, but it t wasn’t like they needed the practice.
“You don’t really forget how to play football [over] seven months. Gronk made a lot of big plays tonight,” Brady said with a smile before rattling off the contributions of others as well.
Most impressive was how Gronkowski rose up when the game was getting tight in the fourth quarter, the Steelers having closed it to 21-14. A 52-yard Brady-to-Gronkowski connection quickly helped sway the momentum, then Gronkowski followed with a heads-up play to recover a Dion Lewis fumble at the goal line before snaring his third touchdown.
It was, in essence, a Gronkowski takeover.
Overall, with Brady and Gronkowski leading the charge, it also was a reminder that while it's a new season, the same old connection that powers the Patriots' offense is already in sync. But they had plenty of help.
Running back Dion Lewis, who last appeared in a regular-season game in 2012 with the Philadelphia Eagles, played the majority of snaps as the team's new change-of-pace option. He made an impression in a performance that had fantasy football owners taking notice.
No. 1 receiver Julian Edelman, who like Gronkowski also didn't play in the preseason, had a noticeable spring in his step as well. The Steelers struggled to cover him (11 catches, 97 yards).
Meanwhile, the new-look defense bent at times but never truly broke; two missed Josh Scobee field goals in the first half obviously helped. As for whom the Patriots would rely on most to replace cornerback Darrelle Revis, the answer couldn't have been clearer as they had second-year man Malcolm Butler shadowing No. 1 receiver Antonio Brown all over the field. From Super Bowl hero to No. 1 corner, the progression continues for Butler. Brown finished with nine catches for 133 yards and a late touchdown -- a good day on the stat sheet but not one that took over the game.
If there was a downer for the Patriots, it was watching 2014 first-round draft choice Dominique Easley walk gingerly to the locker room with a hip injury in the first quarter and never return. Easley, who tore both ACLs while playing in college at Florida, had landed on season-ending injured reserve in December and was managed carefully all offseason in hopes of having him at full strength.