Nothing will ever quite compensate for how much I hate Mondays, but since I’ve yet to figure out how to avoid them I guess starting the week with a Pat’s opening day win is about as close as I’ll get to my euphoric beginning of the work week. It was no 59-0 victory but damn was it pleasing to watch. Just flat out domination.

For the first time since Curtis Martin graced New England’s presence we finally saw a solid running game to accompany Tom Brady’s offense, with an exception to Corey Dillon’s short lived run as a Patriot. Ridley ignited the ground game yesterday with his first 100+ yard game on 21 carries and a TD. Brady was Brady-esque per usual, passing for 236 yards and 2 TDs. Nothing spectacular but if Ridley can show some consistency with what he brought to the table on Sunday than once again our offense will not be a concern.

Even the defense looked good yesterday. Certainly much improved over the 31^st ranked D we saw last year. Wilfork and the D-Line were rock solid as expected. What still worries me is the secondary. Can we just get Rodney Harrison to come out of retirement already? Or the law firm? We have the makings for a great secondary we just need to capitalize. Twice yesterday we should have had interceptions, one for a pick six. And we can’t be giving up long first down conversions on 3^rd and 17 after the D-Line puts up a wall for the first two downs. It’s definitely once again an area to improve on and I’m sure Lord Belichick will refuse to let it go on.

So after all was said and done, the first NFL Sunday of the year was a success for New England, showing promise to keep Patriot Nation satisfied in the months to come and provide Red Sox fans something other than booze to numb the pain. Happy Monday Boston!