FOXBORO -- "It was good," coach Bill Belichick said late Saturday night, after his Patriots had routed the Redskins, 41-0, at Gillette Stadium, "to see some players back out there that hadn't played in a while. That was encouraging."

It certainly was.

It was good -- very good -- to see Rodney Harrison back at free safety and Dan Koppen playing center again for the first time in a long time. It was good -- very good -- to see Junior Seau playing linebacker for the Patriots for the first time. And it certainly was encouraging to realize that all three are likely to be in the lineup two weeks from now when the Pats open the season against the Bills.

"You don't know how much you love something," Koppen said in the postgame locker room, "till it's gone."

He was talking, in his case, about football. But he could have been speaking for Patriots fans, who, for much of last season, missed seeing him and Harrison on the field.

Harrison, the emotional leader of the New England defense, went down for the year in the third game of the season at Pittsburgh with what, considering his age (33 last December), was feared might be a career-ending injury to his left knee.

Koppen, who'd started 46 consecutive games -- beginning with the second game of his rookie year in 2003, when he was drafted in the fifth round out of Boston College -- suffered a shoulder injury in mid-November that sidelined him for the remainder of the season.

"Not being around in November and December, watching the team play, was tough," he said.

Koppen played the opening series against the Redskins, the first game action he's seen since being placed on the injured reserve list Nov. 15.

"I haven't played in nine months," he said, "so [Friday] night I was having a little trouble sleeping, thinking about this. Playing a night game didn't help, because I had all day to think about it."

Afterwards, Koppen thought everything went OK.

"Everything I was supposed to do, I did," he said. "There were no problems."

"There was a play count on me," he added, explaining his limited action. "They wanted 12 or 15 [plays] and that first drive was 12 plays, so that was it."

Harrison, who played in the first quarter, was nowhere to be seen after the game, but his teammates -- especially Seau -- were delighted to see the fiery veteran back on the field.

"It was a reunion," said Seau, who played with Harrison in San Diego for nine years, from 1994 through 2002.

"Seeing Rodney back there, with the injury that he had, is a testament to him and what he has been able to do. For him to be out there running around -- or even to be walking -- he's a tough guy, a tough cookie, and one of the leaders of the team. I take my hat off to him."

Seau almost took the head off Washington running back Ladell Betts in the first half, flying over a blocker to make the tackle and looking as if he was a rookie again, rather than a veteran returning for his 17th season, less than a week after a ceremony in San Diego celebrating his retirement from the NFL.

"I had a lot of fun out there," said Seau, who was greeted with cheers on his first appearance in a New England uniform. "It was heartwarming. Now it's my job to keep it that way."

It's apparent that Seau, a 12-time Pro Bowler, but a loser in his only Super Bowl appearance (following the 1994 season, when the Chargers loss to the 49ers in Miami), will claim a starting spot at inside linebacker.

"I know the opportunity that lies ahead here," he said.

The chance to win a championship is why he decided to get back to hitting ballcarriers, rather than hit the beach in southern California.

"I love the game of football," he said.

No one plays with more passion than Harrison, who loves to place himself in the underdog role. The fact that many people speculated he might not be able to come back from such a severe injury at his age is likely to motivate him to have one of the best seasons of his career.

Koppen could have been speaking for Harrison, too, when he said: "This was the first step in getting back to playing 60 minutes."

No one was happier to see those veterans back in the lineup than quarterback Tom Brady.

"Rodney, Dan, Junior's first night playing -- it helps," Brady said. "They aren't only emotional leaders, but they're great players, too.

"We have high aspirations here, so we need to continue to build on these types of performances and hope it looks as good in the regular season as it did [against the Redskins.]"

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