Success feels good for Brian Hoyer

The QB from Michigan State -- now entering his third season as Tom Brady's backup in New England -- talked about the invaluable experience that only game situations can provide.

"I think the more experience you get, the more you can focus on the defense as opposed to trying to think about what the play is, so you can react more," Hoyer said. "And I think that’s what comes with more experience. But like I’ve always said, there’s nothing that compares to real game experience and to get out there for the first game and have some success feels good. And like I said, there’s a long way to go, but it’s a good building block."

More from Hoyer's postgame presser:

Q: A little bit of a rough start with the fumble and then the three-and-out, but did anything change after that?

Hoyer: No, I think, obviously, you mentioned the fumble — you just have to take care of the ball. We just went out there and started to execute better; that’s all it was. And then really after that, I thought things went pretty well.

Q: How impressed were you with [running back] Stevan Ridley?

Hoyer: He ran the ball really hard. That’s something we’ve seen in practice, so we knew the least you were going to get out of him was that he was going to run it hard. He made some plays and he had a nice catch, so I thought he did really well.

Q: How far has Taylor Price come from last year? He had that great catch in the back of the end zone tonight.

Hoyer: It’s funny because we had that play in practice the other day and it was almost the same catch. I told him, ’Just like practice.’ But he has come a long way. When it comes to game time, he really turns it on. He caught that one slant, he caught the ball by Ryan [Mallett] and turned up field and had a good gain. He comes to play when he gets the opportunity.

Q: Considering the amount of time you’ve had in camp so far, can you talk about the play of the offensive line in front of you? The line doesn’t usually come together that fast.