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FOXBORO - Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place traffic went a lot like Sunday night's football game: Maybe not a pretty sight for the hometown crowd, but with patience and some adjustments on the fly, the job got done.

The game against Philadelphia was the first home Patriots game to coincide with the recently opened stores at Patriot Place. And it was a chance for stadium and mall management - and local and state police - to test and revise their traffic plan.

"I think it went well," said state police Lt. Jeff Stuart, commander of the Foxboro barracks, a view shared by Foxboro Police Chief Edward O'Leary.

But with many of the 71,000 fans converging on the stadium area hours before the game to tailgate, and shoppers going to and from the Bass Pro Shops and three other stores, Route 1 was packed, Stuart said.

New England Patriots spokesman Stacey James said that about 1 p.m., there were more than 2,000 cars in Patriot Place retail lots. "We were pleased to see the turnout and the effectiveness of people being able to come, shop and leave without being caught up in the game-day traffic," James said.

He said many of the shoppers were gone by the time the football traffic peaked.

To relieve some of the congestion, state police allowed private parking lots along Route 1 and the stadium's big P-10 lot across Route 1 from the stadium to open by 3 p.m., an hour early.

By 5:30 p.m., Stuart said Route 1 traffic was backed up from the Interstate 495 offramp in Plainville and the Interstate 95 offramp in Sharon.

But Stuart said the traffic kept moving, and by 7:30 p.m. Patriots fans were into the parking lots in time for the 8:15 p.m. kickoff.

To discourage football patrons from using parking reserved for shoppers, motorists entering the retail parking area were handed a time ticket and a pamphlet explaining the rules. Violators would be subject to a $150 parking fee, to be paid with a credit card upon leaving the lot.

James said the fee was not imposed on any parkers that night.

"Stadium management did an excellent job of advising people entering the parking lot of the consequences," O'Leary said. "It seemed to go well."

Parking at the mall was free until 7:30 p.m. Shoppers arriving at 7:30 p.m. or later would have two hours of free parking at the mall.

To reduce congestion at the entrance to the parking areas designated for shoppers - the P9 access - departing shoppers were directed to a different exit, allowing southbound motorists to cross Route 1 on the "flyover," Stuart said. Because the Patriots game was a close one - with the Pats trailing in the fourth quarter before extending their unbeaten streak to 11 games with a 31-28 win - relatively few fans trickled out before the final play, making the final exodus a challenge, O'Leary said.

O'Leary said dispatchers monitoring the intersection of West Chestnut Street and North Street near the new police-fire station reported no major traffic backups, and he said there were no reports of traffic jams in Foxboro center Sunday evening.

The next home game is at 4 p.m. Dec. 9 against Pittsburgh, followed by 1 p.m. home games on successive weekends: Dec. 16, vs. New York Jets; and Dec. 23, vs. Miami.

With increasing overlap between game times and store hours, James said, there's reason to believe that more Patriots fans will take the time to visit the shops, even to pick up some outdoor gear at Bass Pro Shops before sitting down for a cool one - a cold-day game, that is - in the stadium.