FOXBORO – We finally got a glimpse of the 2022 Patriots.

After sitting his starters in last week’s preseason opener, Bill Belichick played the majority of his projected starting offensive and defensive lineups in Friday night’s exhibition game against the Carolina Panthers. The starting units played three series during this second preseason game, in which the Patriots won, 20-10.

It wasn’t always pretty for this new-look offense. Mac Jones completed 4-of-8 passes for 61 yards to go with a 75.5 passer rating in his 2022 preseason debut. The offense didn’t look great to start this game, but Jones’ group found its footing in their final drive. It also appears that we have an answer to who will be calling offensive plays for the 2022 Patriots. On defense, the Patriots continue to build off a solid summer. This group looks to be better than many anticipated.

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Of course, with a limited sample size, there’s a lot more to come for this Patriots team. Here are three takeaways from Friday night.

The Patriots starting offense didn’t start strong, but they certainly finished on a high note.

Jones and his group started against the Panthers backup defense and took the field for three drives. The results were mixed with two three-and-outs before they  scored a second-quarter touchdown.

The Patriots first offensive drive saw the group come out in a two tight-end set and Damien Harris took the first hand off for a gain of six yards. On second-and-4, DeVante Parker dropped a Jones pass that was a bit behind him. That led to third down where Panthers defensive lineman Julian Sanford beat right guard James Ferentz to sack Jones for a loss of six yards

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The second drive was even worse. Rhamondre Stevenson took a handoff for three yards to kick things off. The next snap saw Jones overthrow receiver Jakobi Meyers . On third-and-7, Jones had plenty of time to throw but his pass fell incomplete as it looked like there was a miscommunication with Stevenson, who didn’t appear to know the ball was coming.

The first two drives saw six plays called with three yards gained.

“I circle back to training camp. It’s the process. Any time you’re doing any sort of new offense, there’s a growth and a process to it,” said right guard James Ferentz. “It’s been every day. Mistakes are made and hopefully you can come back and correct it and not make it again.”

The offense finally clicked in the third series. Here we saw Jones complete his first pass – to Meyers for four yards. Then, with 57 seconds left in the first quarter, he hit Nelson Agholor for a first down with a 7-yard gain on third-and-5. The next third down saw Jones hit Montgomery for five yards for the first down. With the offense moving, Jones aired it out on the next play.

At 14:29 of the second quarter, Jones dropped back and threw a perfectly placed 45-yard pass to Agholor. The speedy receiver beat his cornerback off the line and hauled in the deep ball near the sideline to put the Patriots at the 13-yard line. Three plays later, Montgomery finished the drive off with a 2-yard touchdown at 12:23 of the second quarter. Agholor has had a great training camp and that play was reflective of what we’ve seen this summer.

That touchdown capped off a 10-play, 81-yard drive and Jones' night was finished after that.

“It was little bit of a rocky start, but that’s kind of how it goes when you haven’t played for a little bit,” said Jones. “You just have to continue to play. The guys on our team, we operated, didn’t freak out or anything. Just carried on, got our mojo back and keep everything going forward. It was a good drive.

"… We understand how long 60 minutes is and that’s a goo learning lesson of, ‘alright, let’s keep playing here.’ When we get into the season we’ll have a lot of chances to play those games out, continue to grow whether it was a good first drive or not.”

It looks like Matt Patricia will be the Patriots next offensive play caller.

The former defensive coordinator and Detroit head coach was the man calling plays when Jones and the Patriots starting offensive unit started Friday night’s preseason game. At this point, this isn’t a surprise. Patricia has been calling plays during training camp and has done it more than Joe Judge and Belichick.

Last week started the same way. Patricia started the Patriots preseason opener by calling offensive plays to Brian Hoyer and the Patriots backup offense. That lasted only two series, however, as Judge finished the game calling plays into rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe.

Patricia has been the main coach calling plays during the Patriots 11-on-11 drills this summer. That’s why he’s been considered the favorite to replace longtime offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels as the Pats new play caller. As seen last week, Judge has called some plays this summer. Belichick has also called plays in camp as well.

On Friday night, Patricia called plays for all three quarterbacks. When the starting offense went on the field, Patricia stood on the sideline with a large play call sheet to go with his headset. He was clearly talking to Jones pre-snap.

“Matty has done a great job. He’s one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever been around. In terms of football knowledge,” said Jones. “Between all the coaches we have, they’ve done a great job preparing us. He’s really starting to get a feel for it. That’s the thing – just grow each week and make sure we can stack good days together.

He’s very easy to talk to on the sideline. A very easy laid back type of coach, but demands a lot and I respect that about him. Hopefully we can grow for a long time.”

If anything, all three coaches are involved in some aspect. When the Patriots first drive, a three-and-out, was over, Judge and Belichick met with Jones on the bench while Patricia met with the offensive linemen. After the second drive, another three and out, it was Patricia and Judge who met with the quarterbacks. All three coaches met following the Patriots third series, which resulted in a touchdown.

When Hoyer came in, for the fourth series, Patricia was still calling plays. When Zappe took the field on the fifth drive, Patricia was still in charge of the offense. It stayed that way the rest of the night.

When asked if Patricia was calling the offensive plays for every play, Belichick responded. "Communication with the quarterback, yeah. As far as calling the plays, there's a whole 'nother process on that, but yeah."

The Patriots defense played the first three series on Friday night. They did a good job to pressure Panthers backup quarterback P.J. Walker, who was hit two times on his first 10 drop backs.

Overall, several defensive players had a nice night on Friday.

Deatrich Wise started the fun with a sack on Walker for a 10-yard loss at 9:13 of the first quarter. Two plays later, at 8:05, Josh Uche sacked Walker for a loss of five yards to force a Panthers punt. Matthew Judon also did a good job to push the pocket and deflected a Walker pass on the third series. The starting defense allowed three points before backups started to play during the fourth Panthers drive.

"As a defense you hope the offense is considering everything that you do, that you pride yourself on," said linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley. "For us, that's a plethora of things whether it's running and tackling, good run defense, good pass defense... You look to pride yourselves on a lot of good things and make sure you do a lot of great things well."

We saw Jonathan Jones start at outside cornerback opposite of Jalen Mills. Myles Bryant was the starting slot cornerback. That trio has been the top unit over the past two weeks in camp. The big question Jones needs to answer is if his height (5-foot-10) will make it difficult for him to cover bigger receivers than he was covering while in the slot. He passed the test on Friday when he broke up a deep pass intended for 6-3 receiver Keith Kirkwood at 7:32 of the second quarter.

Safety Joshuah Bledsoe continues to have a nice offseason. The second-year safety forced a fumble on Stephen Sullivan at 2:22 of the second quarter. Bledsoe landed a nice hit to lodge the ball out of the tight end's hands and Bryant recovered to give the Patriots the ball back.

In the fourth quarter, undrafted rookie DeMarcus Mitchell strip-sacked Walker in the end zone. Mitchell recovered the fumble for a touchdown with 1:23 left in the game.