FOXBOROUGH — With most of the New England Patriots' starters sidelined, the rookies got their chance to shine in Thursday night's preseason opener against the New York Giants.

Second-round rookie receiver Tyquan Thornton was the first to step up. He created separation on a nice move against Giants cornerback Aaron Robinson. Backup quarterback Brian Hoyer's pass was well underthrown to Thornton, negating the nice move.

Hoyer made up for it though at the end of the first quarter. He found Thornton in the back of the end zone for a two-yard touchdown pass. Thornton actually had to fight through a holding penalty to get up and make the grab.

Thornton downplayed his first (unofficial) touchdown in the NFL. “It was just basic fundamentals you know, it was something that we worked on throughout the week, putting emphasis on the red zone and it just goes to show that hard work definitely pays off,” he said.

That ended up being Hoyer's final pass of the night. Fourth-round rookie Bailey Zappe quarterbacked for the Patriots for the remainder of the game and completed a seven-yard pass to Thornton, the receiver's other reception on the night. The completion to Thornton was just one of three completions on nine attempts from Zappe in the first half.

Zappe though got better as the game went along. The Western Kentucky product completed 12 of his first 13 passes in the second half, leading the Patriots to multiple scoring drives. Zappe admitted that he just got “more and more comfortable” as the game went along.

“The more times I come to the sideline, talk to my coaches, talk to my teammates about what they saw, what they're seeing, and just going back on a drive and just having that next-play mentality,” Zappe said. “That's kind of what my coaches, my teammates, we all try to communicate to everybody is have that next-play mentality and moving on from what happened prior and moving on to the next one and trying to do our best, do our job.”

Zappe's best moment of the game came on his final drive. The rookie completed 4-of-6 passes, finding backup receiver Lil'Jordan Humphrey for a 20-yard touchdown pass that gave the Patriots a 21-20 lead with 4:51 remaining. Zappe made the completion to Humphrey as a Giants lineman was in his face, causing him to throw off his backfoot to Humphrey in the end zone.

“We prepared all week for multiple pressures that the Giants were going to give us, and that was one of the occasions that we practiced for,” Zappe said of the touchdown pass. “It came to fruition. We were able to score a touchdown, and he made a great play, and the O-line blocked really well and was able to let me get the ball off, and it was an overall good play.”

Zappe didn't get a chance to play hero again. The Giants marched down the field and ran the clock down before Graham Gano kicked the game-winning field goal to give New York a 23-21 win at the buzzer. The rookie quarterback finished 205 passing yards on 19-of-32 completions with a touchdown and an interception. Two of his most impressive completions of the night came on passes to second-year receiver Tre Nixon, connecting with him on 36-yard and 32-yard completions.

Guard Cole Strange, who the Patriots selected in the first round of the draft, saw some action, too. He played in the Patriots' first two drives of the night before getting the rest of the night off. After what's been a relatively shaky first two weeks of training camp for him, Strange thought Thursday's game was a moment of progression for him.

“I guess in every way possible,” Strange said about how he's grown over the last couple of weeks. “In college, my coaches had pointed out to me there were times when I hesitated off of the ball, but I think that was because I was thinking too much. Every now and then you could see me doing that and that’s something I have worked on, and my technique has gotten better just because we have been hammering the fundamentals so I feel I have improved on that too.”

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As for other rookies, Patriots third-round corner Marcus Jones didn't play on Thursday. That's likely a good sign for him as many of the starters didn't play, suggesting that Jones is in line to be the slotting nickel corner with their other slot corner, Jonathan Jones, possibly moving to the outside.

Fourth-round rookie corner Jack Jones saw a good amount of playing time. He could've had an interception that likely would've resulted in a touchdown in the third quarter if he was able to get his body in front of the ball a split-second quicker. Jones didn't, but the pass fell incomplete and he recorded a pass breakup in the fourth quarter.

“It was good,” Jones said of his first preseason game. “It wasn’t too much for me. Got out there and got the jitters out on the first couple of plays. Then the rest was just football for me.”

All in all, the Patriots rookies feel good about their preseason debuts. They know though that there's far more work to be done though.

“It was a great experience just to be out there with my teammates,” Thornton said. “We grinded it out during training camp, putting in that blood, sweat, and tears just to see us go out there and compete. We’re going to come back tomorrow and put another day together.”