Giants running back Brandon Jacobs (27) is gang-tackled by the Patriots on a first-quarter carry during last night’s exhibition game at Gillette Stadium.

The providence journal / Glenn Osmundson

FOXBORO — How, you probably want to know, did Tom Brady look last night?

He is, after all, the key to what promises to be an eagerly awaited, highly promising, very entertaining New England Patriots season.

This, as everyone outside of Indianapolis and San Diego knows — or at least expects — is going to be the Patriots’ year. The one in which, most football pundits across this pigskin-crazed country of ours agree, Bill Belichick’s Boyz will win their fourth NFL championship in the last seven years.

Brady is, of course, not just the quarterback. He is also the difference-maker. The Man. The Franchise. So it should be reassuring to New England fans shaken by the very real possibility that the Red Sox may yet blow their once-commanding lead in the A.L. East that Brady looked good last night.

As is only to be to expected of the man Esquire magazine this month tabbed as the world’s best dressed.

The only fashion statement Brady made last night, however, was wearing a baseball cap rather than a football helmet.

Matt Cassell, who hasn’t started a regular-season game since he was in high school in Chatsworth, Calif., got the starting nod at QB against the Giants. Rookie Matt Gutierrez also got to play. Even 43-year-old Vinny Testaverde got to play. If Steve Grogan or Babe Parilli had asked to go in for a series, Belichick might have let them play.

Brady did not play. Neither did any other Patriot of significance.

And that’s just fine — unless, of course, you paid full price for a ticket to see what was a battle of the backups from the beginning, with the likes of Mike Elgin, Garrett Mills and Kelvin Kight starting on offense, while the defensive line was composed of Le Kevin Smith, Santonio Thomas and Zach West.

It’s doubtful whether anyone other than Mel Kiper can name the alma maters of all six of those players.

It’s also doubtful that all six of them will be in uniform a week from Sunday when the Patriots finally play for real, against the Jets at the Meadowlands.

Preparation for the Jets begins today — not last night, when the primary objective was making sure the first-stringers will be healthy on Sept. 9 when they have to line up against former Belichick disciple Eric Mangini and the J-E-T-S.

That’s why Randy Moss was not in uniform, postponing his much-anticipated debut for at least another week. The troublesome (always, to opposing defenses; and sometimes, unfortunately, to his own team) wide receiver has been sidelined with a pulled hamstring since Aug. 1. Although perhaps “sidelined” isn’t the right word, since he wasn’t spotted socializing around the 40-yard line last night with other idle veterans such as linebackers Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel and Adalius Thomas.

Nor was there a sighting of perennial All-Pro defensive lineman Richard Seymour, who still is on the Physically Unable To Perform List but will have to be taken off of it by tomorrow afternoon or sit out the first six games of the season. The expectation is that he’ll be on the field for the opener.

Belichick obviously felt that running back Laurence Maroney had gotten all of the preparation he needed in last week’s game at Carolina, when he made his first, and only, appearance of the preseason after undergoing shoulder surgery in the offseason.

Rodney Harrison didn’t play last night. Rosevelt Colvin didn’t play. Matt Light, Dan Koppen, Logan Mankins — none of them played.

But is there anyone in Patriot Nation who doubts that the team will be ready to play a week from Sunday?

Because everyone knows, everyone agrees, everyone is confident that this is the Patriots’ year.

Brady is going to be Player of the Year. Thomas will be Defensive Player of the Year. Belichick will be Coach of the Year. Brandon Meriweather will be Rookie of the Year. Harrison will be Comeback Player of the Year, after proclaiming that no one thought he could do it.

Robert Kraft will be Owner of the Year. Light and Koppen will share honors as Offensive Lineman of the Year. Seymour will be Defensive Lineman of the Year. Testaverde and Junior Seau will be named Senior Citizens of the Year. Moss will be named Good Citizen of the Year.

The Year of the Patriots begins a week from Sunday. That’s why there were no stars, or even starters, in evidence last night at a half-filled Gillette Stadium.

jdonalds@projo.com