Patriots corner Christian Gonzalez works against Carolina's Tetairoa McMillan during Sumday's game at Gillette Stadium. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH,Mass. – Sunday was the day the New England Patriots and their fans had been waiting for:

The return of cornerback Christian Gonzalez.

Gonzalez saw his first game action since he was sidelined after pulling a hamstring on July 28 – exactly two months ago to the day he returned.

He saw plenty of action in the Patriots’ 42-13 victory, mainly going up against Panthers receiver Tetairoa McMillan, someone he was familiar with, but the main thing was he was back on the field.

“It’s tough not to play for a long time and then go out there,” Gonzalez said. “It was a pretty hot Foxborough day but it was great football weather. It’s little challenges, getting your legs under you, just getting back in rhythem. Corner is all about Rhythm youjust have to ge in your groove.

“It is what it is and I’m just taking it day-by-day.”

He’s talked with McMillan in the off-season, and has great respect for him.

“He went out there, and we had a good battle,” Gonzalez said. “It was fun, it was needed to see game speed again. I haven’t been out there in a long time, so it as fun to get out there with Tet and all those guys.”

JONES CALLED HIS RETURN?

According to Patriots receiver Demario Douglas, Marcus Jones predicted his 87-yard punt return for a TD that sparked the win. It probably came at, uh, some prodding from the receiver himself.

“Man, it felt good,” Douglas said. “He called it too. He might not say it, but he called it. He said, ‘I’m going to get me one.’ Because we wee talking about punt returns, kick returns, and we said how AG (Antonio Gibson) had a kick return.

“And then we were taking about when are you (Jones) going to have yours? When are you going to get a punt return. I want to see it in person because you know he had the Jets the year before I came here and he got hurt the first year I was here.”

Douglas got his wish.

CHISM III STILL INACTIVE

The darling of the Patriots preseason, undrafted rookie receiver Efton Chism III, has yet to appear in a regular season game and was inactive Sunday. So was fellow rookie Jared Wilson, who has started at left guard, nursing injuries this past week. Other inactives were defensive tackle Eric Gegory, guard Caedan Wallace, and rookie linebacker Elijah Ponder. Tommy DeVito was the emergency third QG.

VRABEL GIVES DOUGLAS CREDIT

Patriots coach Mike Vrabel seemed annoyed at any criticism for lack of production directed toward Douglas, because the receiver made a big block on Hunter Henry’s TD reception.

“Nobody’s going to say it unless I say it,” Vrabel said. “And so those are the things that matter, not the guy catching the touchdown. That’s the easy part. The hard part’s the guy that didn’t get the ball thrown to him that turns immediately and blocks his guy and we score from the 25-yard-line.”

NOTES

Yesterday’s 42 points was the most the Patriots scored since they blew out the Jaguars on Jan. 2, 2002, a 50-10 win to end the regular season…

With 167 punt return yards, Marcus Jones set a franchise record for total return yardage by one player in a single Patriots game….

Stefon Diggs had six catches for 101 yards, his first 100 yard game as a Patriot and the 37th of his career…

Next Up: The Patriots are at Buffalo next Sunday night.