One down, two to go.

That’ the bottom line on the New England Patriots’ preseason.

Hang in their Patriot fans. Take a deep breath,we can get through this together.

Let’s face it,in today’s NFL the joint training camp practices have replaced the preseason games in terms of importance. There weren’t a lot of players on the Patriots at least during Thursday night’s 13-13 meaningless tilt vs.the Imfianapolis Colts who were on the field.

The only saving grace was the penalty,turnover filled contest went down to the wire for the few thousand that remained at Gillette Stadium. Patriots kicker Andy Borregales was probably glad for that after missing a 49 yard game winning kick with 10 seconds left. And that was after his Indy counterpart, Spencer Shrader,booted a game-tying 61-yarder with 1:21 left.

“I’ve just got to go back and watch the film,” Borregales said,”and go from there.”

Really,what else was he supposed to say except thank goodness it wasnt the regular season or a playoff game. He had other misses as well.

“Three,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. ” I don’t have a message. We’re expected to make them. That’s pro football. They’re banging them in from 60 yards. They got two kickers on the roster, so Andy knows that we have to make those field goals.”

Of course that wasnt the main topic on everyone’s mind, which had nothing to do with the game. It was the absence of corner Christian Gonzalez, who evidently got dinged up at the end of Monday’s practice and was one of about 7 players who did not dress for last night’s game. Eyebrows raised due to his contract issue?

Gonzalez,of course, also missed Tuesday’s joint practice,nowhere to be seen — like last night. But that’s not unusual for a preseason game. We think there were some nights when a guy named Brady may have been in another country.

“Christian was in a group of many players that weren’t here tonight,” Vrabel said.

He was asked if he was injured. Evidently yes but Vrabel was clearly irritaded.

“Christian was unavailable, physically unavailable for the practice,” Vrabel said. “That’s the clarification. Just like other players that I told to have treatment, and everybody has a plan here, there were other guys that were in that same category.

“If you want to list the names, Christian Elliss, Brenden Schooler, Harold Landry, Christian Barmore, et cetera. So make sure they’re all included. They were all in the same group of what they did.”

This was a game in which uou might not have been able to tell the players without a scorecard. That’s what preseason football is all about — unless there are a couple of twists, like last night.

So on we go. It will be interesting next week when the Eagles are in town. Drake Maye will certainly get a ton of work then ,but will he play in the game? He’ll have to see some type of action this preseason,right?

Meanwhile, we leave you with one final thought from Gillette:

Thank goodness in the preseason they dont play overtime.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com or at X at @telegraph_TomK.