New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick feels that his side still need to improve despite their comprehensive pre-season win over the Carolina Panthers.

Two touchdown strikes from Tom Brady to Shane Vereen, as well as another from backup Jimmy Garoppolo to Taylor McCuller, handed the Patriots their second win of pre-season in comfortable fashion at Gillette Stadium.

Belichick told reporters: "I thought we took another step in our preparation. There were certainly some positive things out there; still a lot of things we need to work on.

"Hopefully we can string together another good week on the practice field and in the meetings and take advantage of our next pre-season opportunity to do as much as we can to be ready for the regular season.

"I thought guys played with good effort tonight and we had a good week that led up to that. So, those things were all positives but we have a long way to go. We still have a lot of stuff we need to work on; left a lot of plays out there on the field that we need to clean up."

The Patriots open their 2014 campaign against the Miami Dolphins on September 7.