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No Randy Moss, no Donte Stallworth, no Laurence Maroney or Ben Watson. No first glimpse at the new, explosive Patriots offense.

Instead, it was a plodding exhibition match for the Patriots, a first test at full speed action in which, for the second straight preseason, New England lost its opener by a field goal with no time left, this one 13-10.

In these games we look for flashes and consistency at the same time. Guys who flashed were Le Kevin Smith with a nice strip tackle, Justin Rogers with a sack, a fumble recovery and six tackles, Mike Richardson, active from his safety spot and Oscar Lua with five tackles. But there wasn't much that could be called consistent. Rashad Moore at times had nice push at nose tackle and at others, the Bucs running backs were too often picking up chunks of yards on the ground.

All in all, not many conclusions can be made from this one, as is almost always the case after just one preseason affair.

Kevin Faulk started in the Patriots backfield and took a Brady pass for the game's first play 8 yards. Faulk proceeded to get his share of the calls early in the first quarter, catching three balls for 26 yards and rushing four times for 12 yards.

At wide receiver, Jabar Gaffney started at left wideout with Wes Welker opposite him. Heath Evans also got the start at tight end. From there it was mix and match at the skill positions.

On defense, Randall Gay started at cornerback along with Ellis Hobbs. Jarvis Green replaced Richard Seymour who remains on the PUP list. Ty Warren left the field after the first drive and was replaced by Mike Wright on the defensive line.

Brady's night ended after two series. He was 5 for 7 for 34 yards passing with one of his misses a badly overthrown ball to a wide open Welker. The other was a third down attempt batted down by Gaines Adams. It was a conservative get-the-rust-off night for the Patriots signal caller.

Matt Cassel came in and engineered a drive that ended in Sammy Morris taking it in from 3 yards out. The drive included two catches by Kelley Washington, for 12 and 11 yards, and a 12-yard scramble and fourth down sneak by Cassel to keep the drive alive.

With 12:56 remaining in the second quarter, New England was on top 7-0 after Stephen Gostkowski was good on his extra point attempt.

Luke McCown replaced Bucs starting quarterback Jeff Garcia in the second quarter and brought his team within 4 on a Matt Bryant 36-yard field goal. The Patriots defense sacked McCown on two consecutive plays to force the attempt. The first was by Mike Vrabel on a coverage sack. The second had Mike Wright splitting two Tampa Bay linemen and shooting right up the middle.

The Bucs took the lead with 31 seconds left in the first half. McCown hooked up with tight end Paris Warren three times during the drive, the last an 11-yard touchdown pass over the middle to make the score 10-7 at the half. By this time the Patriots defensive starters had left the field but overall it was a typical first preseason game for the blues. No one really stood out for New England when the starters were on the field with the Bucs gaining 95 yards on the ground and McCown going 6 for 6 passing (61 yards) in the first 30 minutes.

Neither team changed the score in the third quarter but as it ended, the Patriots were driving. Their series started when Le Kevin Smith made a nice tackle and strip on a Lionel Gates run to the outside. Linebacker Justin Rogers recovered to give the Patriots offense the ball on the Bucs 36.

Evans started things off with an 11-yard run and Matt Gutierrez, in the game at quarterback, hit Bam Childress over the middle for 15 yards on third and 10. Gutierrez followed that play up with a 16-yard completion to Garrett Mills down to the 22. After two Evans runs netted 5 yards, Gutierrez looked to him down the left sideline. Bucs safety Kalvin Pearson lunged into Evans before making a play on the ball and was flagged for pass interference.

The penalty gave the Patriots first and goal at the 6. Evans ran for 3 on first down but Gutierrez got tripped up by his center, Gene Mruczkowski after the snap for a loss of 3. On third down, the play went to Kelvin Kight in the right back corner of the end zone but the ball was just overthrown giving Gostkowski a chance to tie the score with a 23-yard field goal attempt, which he did with 11:18 remaining in the game.

An unsportmanlike conduct penalty on Larry Anam on the Patriots punt was called when Anam got pushed out of bounds and didn't immediately return to the field of play, instead running around 20 yards downfield in front of the Patriots bench. That set up Tampa Bay first and 10 at the 43.

Behind the running of Darby, the Bucs began to march. He had seven straight runs for 31 yards; the last went for 2 and ran the clock down to three seconds left to play. Matt Bryant came on for a 32-yard attempt to end the game with the Bucs on top, 13-10.