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Tom Brady comes off the bench - the bench! - as Patriots play Panthers

It’s been a long time – a long time – since Tom Brady came off the bench for the New England Patriots.

And it is just the preseason, but that’s what happened Friday night, with the Patriots in Charlotte to play the Carolina Panthers in their third preseason game.

It was the first time since Sept. 23, 2001 that Brady was in uniform for New England but was not the starter. If that date doesn’t ring a bell, that’s the day Drew Bledsoe was crushed by the New York Jets’ Mo Lewis.

Tom Brady (AP)
Tom Brady completed 3 of 9 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown. (AP)

Jimmy Garoppolo, who will start the first four games of the regular season due to Brady’s suspension, started and played the first three offensive series. Brady came into the game with 1:56 left in the first quarter, and his first attempt was a quick 37-yard catch-and-run to Aaron Dobson.

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It’s the first appearance of the preseason for Brady, who did not play in the preseason opener against the New Orleans Saints (the team said he was out of town due to a death in the family), and last week against the Chicago Bears, when the Patriots scratched Brady after a mishap with scissors.

With the third-year Garoppolo getting his first starts, it made sense that he would start against the Panthers’ defense, which is one of the best in the NFL, particularly along the front seven. But Brady also wanted to get some live snaps; he isn’t tackled in practice, and getting to play in a game changes things.

“You’re getting hit so just the space awareness, guys around you and ball security and things like that,” Brady said at his news conference this week. “For whatever, the last 30 practices, quarterbacks aren’t touched. Just standing there in the pocket, holding the ball knowing that they’re coming to get the ball and knock it out of your hands, hitting the ground, those types of things and so forth are important.

“You just have to feel things out and the game is really the only place to get it because it’s regular speed. You don’t know what’s coming. We prepare, but we don’t obviously get to walk through the looks that we’re going to get. When you get out there you just have to make good decisions and go play quarterback the way that I’ve always tried to do.”

Brady’s second series ended with a perfect, 33-yard sideline touchdown to free-agent pickup Chris Hogan.