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By Nick O'Malley | nomalley@masslive.com

It was spectacular at points and choppy at others, but the New England Patriots defense did enough in the 2018 regular season opener to pull out a win.

The defense let up 20 points against a Houston Texans team that scored 33 at Gillette Stadium a year ago. It was slightly worse than their average regular season numbers from 2017 (18.5 points per game), sure. But half of those points came off of the two turnovers that occurred inside the Patriots' own redzone -- a rarity for a Bill Belichick team.

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Through one game in 2018 under new defensive play caller Brian Flores, the Patriots have shown some exceptional plays that showed signs of progress from last year. They also showed some of the symptoms that haunted them in last year's defensive collapse in the Super Bowl.

Is this year's Patriots defense better than the one from the Super Bowl? It's too early to tell.

However, this unit is healthy and showing some major signs of potential. Here are some of the ways that this team played better on Sunday than it did in February -- and some ways that things haven't changed.

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Maddie Meyer/Getty Images

PATRIOTS STARTING DEFENSE

The Patriots opened up in a nickel defense (extra defensive back) against the Texans. Notice that there are a lot of familiar names from last year.

DE: Lawrence Guy

DT: Malcom Brown

DE: Trey Flowers

LB: Kyle Van Noy

LB: Dont'a Hightower

LB: Ja'Whaun Bentley

CB: Stephon Gilmore

CB: Eric Rowe

CB: Jonathan Jones

S: Patrick Chung

S: Devin McCourty

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Jim Rogash/Getty Images

PATRIOTS STARTING DEFENSE

The Patriots opened up in a nickel defense (extra defensive back) against the Texans. Note that only one of these players wasn't on the roster last year.

DE: Lawrence Guy

DT: Malcom Brown

DE: Trey Flowers

LB: Kyle Van Noy

LB: Dont'a Hightower

LB: Ja'Whaun Bentley (New - Rookie)

CB: Stephon Gilmore

CB: Eric Rowe

CB: Jonathan Jones

S: Patrick Chung

S: Devin McCourty

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

A new factor in the pass rush: Defensive tackle Malcom Brown

Malcom Brown, who does most of his work as a run stuffer was the first Patriot to really get in Watson's face on Sunday.

On the Texans' third drive, it was Brown who surged up the middle to wrap Watson on the Texans' own goal line. It was a potential safety avoided only by Watson managing to flick away a pass at the feet of a blocking tight end.

A couple plays later, Brown flushed Watson again, forcing and off-balance pass on the run for a third-down in completion.

Brown was already a regular contributor as a run-stuffer. But if he can regularly apply pressure in the passing game, that'll make him a major threat for the Patriots this year.

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Deatrich Wise making the jump in Year 2

Wise had a solid rookie season, especially for a fourth-round pick. But this year, he's showing signs of being an impact player on the edge, totalling 1.5 sacks and three QB hits on the day.

Long-limbed and athletic, Wise started to show what he can do to blockers when he establishes leverage and gets going on the edge. He finished with 1.5 sacks and 3 QB hits on the day.

Wise could be in for a big Year 2, so watch for the progress he's set to make.

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Trey Flowers finally has help

The thing about the Patriots defense last year wasn't that they didn't have any pass rushers. Trey Flowers gave opposing blockers plenty of trouble last season. However, since he was often the only one getting pressure, Flowers' threat was often diminished due to drawing double teams and quarterbacks evading the lone defender in the backfield.

But if the Patriots keep this up and keep getting Wise, Brown, Lawrence Guy and others going in the pass rush, we could see Flowers' number jump. We saw the early results Sunday as Flowers finished with 1.5 sacks and 3 QB hits.

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Getting the right guy in the slot: Jonathan Jones

Lost in the madness of the "Why didn't Malcolm Butler play in the Super Bowl?" debate was the fact that the Patriots lost one of their more valuable cornerbacks earlier in the playoffs.

Jones, who left the Divisional Round win against the Titans, is a tremendous athlete who's come a long way on the defensive side of the ball since starting out as an undrafted special teamer.

He got the start as the nickel corner on Sunday, giving the team a solid, agile option against slot receivers. But Jones' start had one other benefit.

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AP Photo/Mark Humphrey

Patrick Chung is playing his natural position

One of the byproducts of Butler's Super Bowl absence was that safety Patrick Chung ended up playing a lot of cornerback covering guys like wide receiver Nelson Agholor.

On Sunday, Chung was in his usual spot at safety up closer to the box, where he wound up taking on more tight ends in coverage (which is more his strong suit in the passing game).

Chung's value gets overlooked at times. But there's a reason the Patriots made him a captain this year. When he's put in a position to thrive, he's one of the team's best defenders.

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Linebackers have had time to gel (no midseason additions/James Harrison)

The Patriots thrive on the motto of "Do your job." However, that's pretty tough when you've got new guys coming in throughout the season.

James Harrison started in the Super Bowl, and he'd only been around the team for a few weeks. Meanwhile, guys like Eric Lee and Marquis Flowers were thrown into the fire midseason. It often showed.

That Super Bowl defense featured a lot of duct tape. This Patriots linebacking corps features a healthy core that's had the whole offseason to work things out. So far, we're seeing the early results of a cohesive unit, especially if everyone stays healthy.

Speaking of which...

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Dont'a Hightower returns as signal caller

Throughout the 2017 season, there probably wasn't a more notable absence down the stretch than that of Dont'a Hightower. The veteran linebacker is the defense's playcaller and is responsible for being the centerpiece of communication.

Hightower didn't account for many big plays firsthand. However, getting him back on the field is a big reason that the Patriots defense played more cohesively from start to finished than they did down the stretch last year.

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Hightower's presence on the field paid dividends early. He came away with a takeaway on the Texans' first play from scrimmage.

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AP Photo/Charles Krupa

Fewer coverage liabilities

There are plenty of guys mentioned here are are playing better than they did in the Super Bowl. There are plenty of others who are either gone, or saw fewer snaps -- and that's a good thing.

Jordan Richards played a lot as a linebacker/safety hybrid in February. He got torched. Marquis Flowers didn't fare much better. James Harrison was at the end of his career and still adjusting to the defense. Those guys are all gone.

Elandon Roberts (who struggled down the stretch last year) is still here, but is limited in his number of snaps, meaning that he's less likely to be put in vulnerable positions in obvious passing situations.

Yes, the Patriots defense is largely the same as last year. But many of the key culprits of that performance are no longer in a spot to be a liability in the passing game.

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AP Photo/Steven Senne

WHAT HASN'T CHANGED: The Patriots are still rough against the run

For as much attention as the Patriots got for getting torched by Nick Foles, the real problem was probably the team's atrocious run defense. The Patriots ranked 31st in Football Outsiders' DVOA metric in that area last year.

On Sunday, that same weakness popped up early with a 31-yard run by Lamar Miller on the edge and continued to the tune of 34 carries for 167 yards.

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The Patriots will have some serious problems if they continue giving up 4.9 yards a carry this season.

What's troubling is that the Patriots were projected to make progress in defending the run with the addition of nose tackle Danny Shelton and a healthy Dont'a Hightower. However, the early returns haven't been great.

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AP Photo/Steven Senne

The Texans were sloppy

As well as the Patriots defense played, the Texans certainly left some opportunities out there on the field.

The most notable of those opportunities came at the end of a Texans third-quarter drive off of a fumble that stalled deep in the red zone. Down two scores, the Texans opted to go for it and probably should've scored.

Watson dropped back and had Ryan Griffin open in the endzone with plenty of separation on Devin McCourty. However, Watson misfired high and behind his receiver, giving the Patriots the ball without a blemish in the scoreboard.

If the Texans scored on that play, we may have been looking at a completely different game down the stretch.

The Patriots didn't get away with those sorts of mistakes in the Super Bowl.

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AP Photo/Steven Senne

So where do they go from here?

When the 2017 Patriots defense was bad, they had problems stopping the run and tended to let quarterbacks pile up numbers and sky-high QB ratings.

The Texans managed to run the ball well. However, the Patriots gave Watson fits on the day by preventing him from getting out in the open on too many occasions. More importantly, Watson finished with one of his least efficient starts in his young career. Watson completed half of his passing attempts on the day, going 17-of-34 for 176 yards with one touchdown and a pick.

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Watson is young, but has the potential to be one of the league's most dynamic quarterbacks this year. Forcing him into a bad performance is an important step for the Patriots.

However, the pass rush that gave the Texans fits in the first half appeared to lose steam in the second half. Watson was noticeably more effective (and more elusive) down the stretch when the front seven stopped generating so much pressure.

Overall, the Patriots had a solid performance from top to bottom on defense, but had some lapses. It's a small sample size, but an encouraging outing overall.

If the Patriots want to prove that they're a good defense, they'll have to put together a similar performance next week against Blake Bortles and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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#Patriots bottle up Deshaun Watson and beat the #Texans 27-20. Plus, the best and worst #Patriots performers https://t.co/YeodzVkhMt — Andrew Callahan (@_AndrewCallahan) September 9, 2018

More coverage: Check out Andrew Callahan's breakdown of the Patriots' season-opening win