New England Patriots' James White, center, celebrates his touchdown during the first half of Sunday's win over the Jets at the Meadowlands. (AP photo)

After two weeks, just what do we really know about these New England Patriots?

It’s really an early, very broad look that is certainly subject to change.

But you’d likely agree with this:

Offensively, they’re good, but not prolific.

Defensively, they’re good, but not dominant.

Sunday, they didn’t need to be prolific on offense or dominant on defense because of the opponent; the New York Jets will make their own mistakes on both sides of the ball en route to a loss.

Perhaps they may need to be more prolific on both sides of the ball this Sunday with the New Orleans Saints coming in; that is if the Saints, who laid an egg under a COVID cloud yesterday (eight assistant coaches out), get their act back together the way they had it on opening day.

The Patriots would be well served to force the Saints to rely on Jameis Winston, and not be able to run the ball. Sunday they allowed 152 yards on the ground.

“The Jets do a good job in the runing game and you know, they gave us a few challenging plays,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “So at times it was OK. Some things we need to work on. Make sure the players understand and correct.”

There’s no real deep theory for either side of the ball. The Patriots are doing a good job of putting the offense in rookie Mac Jones’ capable hands, but not asking him to run a track meet.

As Patriots veteran safety Devin McCourty said, “I’ve said it the last two weeks, Mac’s been consistent. He’s not trying to do too much, he’s not trying to be somebody that’s created by the media.”

There are enough skill players on this team to take the burden off him; backs Damien Harris and James White are reliable (Harris’ fumble last week aside) and certainly enough receivers. The Patriots will, especially now, take what opposing defenses will give them.

It would have been good in the opener to see if New England could have gotten the ball back with Jones having a chance to drive for a win. But that didn’t happen, and that’s one flaw the defense has had, giving up some longer marches. The Jets had drives of 11, 10 and 12 plays on Sunday, but only manged those six points.

The Patriots secondary without Stephon Gilmore thus far has shown it’s good enough to handle a rookie QB who doesn’t have much talent around him. We’ll see how it handles Winston and you-know-who from Tampa in the next two weeks.

On the flip side, the guess here at the end of last season was the veteran back James White wouldn’t be back, that he’d seek opportunity elsewhere. Well, the Patriots welcomed him back with open arms and you can see the experience and leadership he’s provided with a young quarterback plus a third-year running back (Harris) who didn’t play much his rookie year the early focal point.

“James is one of our best players,” Belichick said. “He has tremendous consistency, he can really do whatever we ask him to do – third down, first down, run the bal, catch it, blitz pickup.

“He gives that group great leadership with his preparation and performance, he always ready to go … Whatever you need him to do, that’s a guy you can really count on.”

“I feel good,” White said after Sunday’s game. “I know last year wasn’t my best year for many different reasons. I’m excited to be back out here and have an opportunity to play this game.”

That’s prolific praise, post-game, for a player, which is usually unlike Belichick so we now see how so valued White is.

The next step is waiting to see how veteran tight ends Jonnu Smith and Hunter Henry can do in the red zone. They really haven’t been utilized there yet. Plenty of football left for that.

“Everybody has an opportunity,” Belichick said. “Which ones come up and how it unfolds, that’s a little big unpredictable.

“We just don’t throw the ball to one guy. Maybe on a screen pass, so it just depends on how the playe develops, but yeah. We have options for everybody.”

Sometimes it all falls into place. The Patriots are trying to transition into a new era, but the theory remains the same:

“When we can play complimentary football,” McCourty said, “we can win some games.”

On to Week 3.