Bottom line up front

FOXBOROUGH -- A tale of two lines.

One could take a bow the morning after a 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The other, though it played better in the second half Thursday night, needed to spend a little more time watching its errors on film, and hoping to improve next Sunday in Arizona.

One thing was clear in watching the Patriots' offensive line in the opener: Tom Brady had plenty of time to throw the football. What was even more impressive was the run blocking. Because New England's linemen are undersized, there's always concern about their ability to move mountainous defensive linemen. But they did just that against the Colts, much to the delight of Corey Dillon, who gained 86 yards on 15 carries in his Patriots debut and had many wondering why he didn't carry the ball more.

Defensively, there were certainly moments when you thought the free agent loss of Ted Washington was greater than anyone had imagined. Especially in the first half, when rookie Vince Wilfork struggled and Keith Traylor was blocked out of most plays, albeit with some double-teaming.

Of course, there were other defenders who contributed to allowing the Colts to rush for 202 yards, including 142 by Edgerrin James. Had James not turned the ball over twice in the red zone, the Patriots might have left the stadium with their heads hung in shame. But big plays -- a Tedy Bruschi interception of Peyton Manning at the 1-yard line in the first quarter, a forced fumble by Eugene Wilson at the goal line in the fourth quarter, and Willie McGinest's sack off the edge, which forced Mike Vanderjagt into a 48-yard field goal attempt with 24 seconds left -- saved the day.

"A lot of guys had a lot of mistakes," said McGinest. "I let Manning go around the end one time [for a 19-yard gain] when I was supposed to have force. Guys getting inside, a lot of different things. And collectively we didn't play well. And we can't win a lot of games like we did [Thursday]."

Patriots coach Bill Belichick didn't care for the defense on the Manning run, indicating yesterday, "We have to do a better job of taking care of our responsibilities and defending whatever plays they run. We don't have any defensive design to have a guy outside of the defense run for 19 yards to the sideline. That defense isn't in our playbook. I don't care whether it is Manning or Joe Namath, it doesn't make any difference who it is. It is bad football.

"I think when the quarterback has the longest run against you, that is not a good sign, especially when it is that quarterback. We had some problems. There were times when we played better than others in the running game. They had a couple of good backs that ran hard and broke some tackles. Some of it is tackling. Some of it is poor fundamental football. Some things, we probably need to do a little bit better job of coaching it. They had a good plan that gave us some problems. Am I concerned about it? Yes, sure. Absolutely. On the other hand, there are a lot of things that need to be fixed in all three phases of the game, and defensively, that is at the top of the list."

But Belichick must have liked what he saw of Ty Warren's pressure on Manning, which led to Bruschi's interception.

Richard Seymour put the line play into perspective. "It was good to see where we're at," he said. "That was a great offensive team we played, and I think they tested us. We have to play better. It gives us a better read on the level we need to be at to make sure this doesn't happen to us again. You can get a false sense of what kind of team you have if you don't get tested like this early on. The important thing is we won, but we have a lot of work to do. It's a good tape to watch as far as adjustments. They did a good job of game-planning against us."

Without question, the defensive line play improved as the game went on.

James still had his moments in the second half, but they were few. Wilfork seemed to get more comfortable. While he was contained well by Colts center Jeff Saturday in the first half, Wilfork responded well later in the game.

Traylor also began to hold his ground better. There may have also been conditioning issues. As Belichick pointed out yesterday, it was the first time that the starters had played this long, and they got no snaps in the exhibition finale against Carolina.

Conditioning also seemed to play a role for the offensive line, as Stephen Neal and Adrian Klemm got playing time off the bench. Neal subbed at guard for both Joe Andruzzi and Russ Hochstein, while Klemm got a few series in place of right tackle Tom Ashworth. On Dillon's 38-yard run with 7:51 remaining in the second quarter, it was Klemm who delivered a block to spring Dillon loose.

After one game, there is already a good feeling about Dillon's contribution.

"When you have someone behind you like Corey running like he did, that just makes us better," said center Dan Koppen. "I think he ran great. He's always falling forward. He's able to skip through the creases, and he was running hard."

The Patriots got away with poor play on defense, and benefited from a fine effort offensively.