CHARLOTTE - Coming out of last week's preseason game in New Orleans, the story was about a guy who doesn't like playing corner and didn't do it very well against the Saints: Devin McCourty.
On Friday night, McCourty was back where he's best - free safety - and one of the storylines is a guy who is dying to play corner and did it pretty well against the Panthers. Tarell Brown started as the nickel corner in the Patriots 4-2-5 alignment and had a nice pass breakup in the first quarter and was sticky in coverage most of the night.
It wasn't an A-plus effort from the secondary - Greg Olsen in particular was a handful from the tight end spot - but it was a decent effort overall from the reconfigured group.
"You gotta go into the game with a positive mindset," said the 30-year-old Brown. "We worked really hard all week game-planning and trying to adjust to those guys and we did a great job today."
Brown didn't play exclusively in the slot. He was on the field at the start with Malcolm Butler and Bradley Fletcher as the outside corners and McCourty at safety along with Patrick Chung. He said he has no preference where he plays as long as he plays somewhere.
"They mix me around a little bit," he said. "I'm really not sure as far as every day but whenever my number's called I need to be ready. Long as I'm on the field I really don't care. Long as I'm on the field and get an opportunity to make plays I'm excited about that so, slot, outside, wherever."
The departures of Darrelle Revis, Kyle Arrington and Brandon Browner have been a cause for nail-biting and flashbacks to the 2011 and 2012 seasons when the Patriots seemed to have coverage busts with alarming regularity.
New England Patriots
The talent of Revis in being able to lock down a receiver is obviously going to be missed but one advantage that this group may have over the recent editions that struggled is that there is that this group is more seasoned and seems to play with a great understanding. Guys get beat. That's the way the league is. But few guys are running free.
"You know what's crazy is we're communicating really well," said Brown. "Guys are putting forth the effort in the film room and putting forth the effort at practice to make sure we're on the same page and that really helps when we get out there on the field. It's a cohesive group. Everybody's on one page and we really work hard during the week with communication. The attention to detail is amazing here and I just look forward to the upcoming season and everybody keep getting better with time."
Brown made a strong case Friday night for a big role on the back end.