Patriots' winners and losers from preseason opener vs. Lions

Who strengthened their standing on the team and who weakened their standing after Thursday night's preseason blowout against the Lions?

Let's go over some winners and losers from the New England Patriots' 31-3 win over the Detroit Lions in Week 1 of the preseason.

Big Winner: Jakobi Meyers

Jakobi Meyers continues to impress. Anyone who has even paid a little bit of attention to training camp should know his name. Not only did he look good with Brian Hoyer and Jarrett Stidham in the preseason opener, but he has looked like a reliable target for Tom Brady this August. 

He demonstrated great hands and route-running ability last night. His performance was very encouraging with Josh Gordon's status looming and N'Keal Harry leaving last night's game due to a lower-body injury.

Big Loser: Duke Dawson

Duke Dawson got beat in coverage last night and was responsible for a too-many-men and holding penalty. None of this is certainly ideal. He did not appear ready for this game and fans can only hope that he picks it up soon. 

He also struggled in joint practices this week and has had an up-and-down camp. While he can still develop and writing him off might be too soon, Dawson certainly has not stepped up to the task this offseason and concerns about his future are totally warranted. 

Winner: Front seven 

John Simon, Danny Shelton, Jamie Collins, Ja'Whaun Bentley, Chase Winovich, Derek Rivers, and Shilique Calhoun all made great plays last night. The long list of strong performers has to pump up New England's fans because this group was dominant. They disrupted the Lions' offense so much in the early goings that Detroit could never really get anything going on offense. 

If guys like Simon, Shelton, and Collins can replicate some of last night's performance during the regular season, this defense will be in great shape. 

Loser: Matt LaCosse the blocker

This might be a slight stretch because he had a good receiving game, but besides that, Matt LaCosse did not look encouraging Thursday night. He struggled in his blocking opportunities and had to leave the field due to injury. 

While no one expected him much from him last night, he looks like he has some things to work on before he becomes the presumed number one tight end for the first four weeks of the season. 

His blocking is nowhere near where it has to be, which will be a weird feeling for the Patriots' offense that grew accustom to the Hall of Fame blocking by Rob Gronkowski. This should mean that James Develin and Ryan Izzo will have to pick up the slack for LaCosse in the beginning of the season. 

Other notes:

- Hoyer and Stidham had really good games and it should be interesting to see if both of them make the roster. New England generally does not carry three quarterbacks on the roster. Last time they did was when the team had Jacoby Brissett and Jimmy Garroppolo . 

- Some of the plays from the Patriots' preseason debut should be taken with a grain of salt. This Detroit team looked really bad. Their secondary and offensive line looked lost on the field and made things easy for New England at times. Matt Patricia better hope he doesn't have to rely on any of them this season. 

- Besides Dawson and LaCosse making some mishaps, Joejuan Williams and Stephen Gostkowski are the only other two players to keep your eyes on. Williams had his struggles in coverage but had a really strong game against the run. Gostkowski missed a 37-yard field goal right before halftime. 

- Maurice Harris, like Williams, had an up-and-down night but still remains in a good spot going forward. He had a very nice one-handed catch in the end zone to open up the score sheet for the game. 

- Braxton Berrios looked really good returning punts. He could potentially dethrone Julian Edelman as the starting punt returner. That would certainly take the load off an older slot receiver that the team depends on. 

- Brandon Bolden had a couple nice runs on offense. It will be interesting to see what his role looks like on offense, if it exists at all. 

- The offensive line had a very good night, and while they were not going up against an A-squad, they certainly did a good job in both the pass game and run game.