FOXBORO -- Playing 36 of the Patriots 39 first-half plays last night, quarterback Tom Brady responded to the increased workload, going 15-for-20 for 149 yards in the first half and leading three scoring drives.

New England went into the break at Gillette Stadium with a 13-3 lead over the Arizona Cardinals.

Then, with starters from both sides sitting out most of the second half, New England pushed its lead to 30-3 final score as backup Matt Cassel allayed fears about his readiness to be the Pats backup.

The best measure of the offense's first-half efficiency? It went 8-for-11 on third down in the first half.

"We were 1 of 9 last week and that wasn't very good," said Brady. "That was a big point of emphasis this week, staying on the field on third down. We kept them manageable. When they're third-and-4, third-and-3, you have the whole field to work with. Whether it's Ben [Watson] or Kevin [Faulk] on those short passes. When you're on the field and you get those first downs, you can see the defense wearing down."

The greatest cause for concern? It's clearly missing its outside weapons. Receivers aren't getting any separation. Just four of Brady's 15 completions went to wideouts -- two to Bam Childress (including a 29-yarder down the right sideline) and one each to Reche Caldwell and Kelvin Kight. Brady went to his wide receivers just seven times in the first half.

Three of his five incompletions were intended for wideouts (one incompletion to Caldwell was wiped out by a penalty).

Strangely, a question was posed to Brady intimating that his wide receivers had a big night getting open.

His response spoke volumes. "Ummm. . .God, I didn't realize. Maybe I didn't notice it at the time. I know I throw it to Deion [Branch] a lot, for example; he gets a lot of passes. I know Reche made some nice catches. And we're going to need that. They'll be called upon in this offense."

With Branch's holdout now 25 days old, rookie Chad Jackson still unavailable for duty and veteran Troy Brown sitting out the first half last night, the Patriots wide receiver situation is not good.

And with just one more preseason game of import ahead -- next week against Washington -- before their opener there's little time to improve it. That the Pats had such efficiency is testament to Brady's ability to find the most trusted targets available to him -- tight end Benjamin Watson (four first-half catches for 40 yards) and Kevin Faulk (3 for 34).

The Patriots had to settle for field goals on their first two drives of the game. The first one featured three third-down conversions, including a third-and-8 cross to Faulk in the face of a Cardinals' blitz that went for 25 yards.

The drive stalled at the Arizona 13 when Brady was sacked by Bertrand Berry on third-and-4. Rookie kicker Steve Gostkowski, handling the kicking duties last night, drilled a 33-yarder to cap the 13 play, 52-yard drive.

New England opened defensively in a 3-4 with Tully Banta-Cain and Rosevelt Colvin outside and Mike Vrabel sliding inside to play next to Barry Gardner. Banta-Cain made his presence felt right away, continuing a good camp with a sack and a pressure of Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner.

New England's second drive covered 62 yards in 10 plays as rookie back Laurence Maroney started with a burst for the second straight week, carrying for 12 hard yards on his first carry. He finished the half with 28 yards on six carries. That drive also ended on Gostkowski's foot as he knocked in a 33-yarder to make it 6-0 late in the first.

With the Pats working out of a 4-3 alignment on the Cards second drive, Asante Samuel picked off an underthrown ball intended for Larry Fitzgerald and backup Matt Cassel came in for Brady. His stint lasted just three plays. Brady came back in and threw a pair of incompletions to end the drive.

But the Cardinals' offense slogged again with Warner under center and New England got the ball back at its own 14 and Brady went to work on his final drive. He hit Childress for 20 on a third-and-4, got Watson for 18 on a second-and-24 and Faulk went for 14 yards on a third-and-6 draw from the Arizona 31.

With 1:20 left in the half, Corey Dillon (10 carries, 26 yards) bulled in from the 4-yard line to make it 13-0.

Then came the impressive debut of Cardinals rookie quarterback Matt Leinart. Taking over at the Arizona 15-yard line with 1:09 left in the half, Leinart had two scrambles for 29 yards on the drive and went 3-for-6 for 20 yards to set up a 48-yard field goal by Neil Rackers that made it 13-3 at the break.

Aside from the two Cassel scrambles, New England's defense held Arizona's running game in check to the tune of 15 yards on five carries. New England also did a nice job on the Cardinals' receivers, allowing just the 26-yarder to Fitzgerald and holding Anquan Boldin without a catch.

The second half belonged to Cassel. After a shaky outing in Atlanta last week, he came in and missed his first two pass attempts after throwing incomplete on his one first-half attempt.

He then went 8-for-8 on the Pats next two drives and seemed far more comfortable in the pocket, especially on crossing patterns. He hit Brown for gains of 12 and 19 yards on the Pats second drive of the second half, which ended with a 33-yard Gostkowski field goal.

On the ensuing kickoff, Eric Alexander forced a fumble that Randall Gay recovered at the Cardinals' 9. Cassel hit running back Heath Evans out of the backfield for a 9-yard score making it 23-3 late in the third.

New England punched in another score with 11:55 left in the game on a 5-yard touchdown pass from Cassel to Rich Musinski.

tcurran@projo.com / (401) 277-7340