Pats Pulpit at Training Camp: 8/6 Notes

Notes from the Patriots practice fields on this Saturday:

• The receivers kicked things off with some route running drills.  Julian Edelman showcased his quickness, but also showed how fast he was.  Wes Welker looks back to his normal self, and can really stop, start, and cut on a dime.  Taylor Price and Darnell Jenkins were also impressive running routes.
• In the tight end/running back/linebacker drills, Gary Guyton got beat down the field multiple times.  The first time was by Rob Gronkowski and the second by Carson Butler.  In that same drill, Stevan Ridley made a nice one handed grab in the flat.
• There were a couple of would-be sacks in full-team drills.  Jerod Mayo timed a blitz up the middle that would have decimated Bryan Hoyer.  Mark Anderson also beat the tackle for a would-be sack (and later had another good rush in team work).
• In an open-field tackling drill, Will Yeatman absolutely trucked Matt Slater on one rep.  Slater was slow getting up, but got back out there and made a nice form tackle on Yeatman the next time around.
• On the day, Ryan Mallett looked much more accurate.  He hit a string of passes, and didn't really let much get away from him.
• The play of the day was once again a Brady-Ochocinco connection.  Brady dropped back and threw a bomb down the left sideline.  With Sergio Brown and Malcolm Williams draped all over him in coverage, Ochocinco managed to jump up and grab the pass while falling to the turf backwards.  Impressive play, and it had the crowd issuing the loudest cheer of the day.
• Near the end of the session, the Patriots went back to goal line work.  Brady hit Aaron Hernandez on a fade to the corner of the endzone on back-to-back beauties.  Hernandez then caught a pair of touchdowns from Bryan Hoyer, one of which was a beautiful one handed grab.
• Sergio Brown made the most impressive hit of the day in goal line work.  Stevan Ridley, who had a good day overall, caught a pass in the flat.  As he turned up field, he was met by Brown who lowered his shoulder and set Ridley straight to the turf.
• At the conclusion of the practice, Nate Solder caught a punt that relieved the players of sprints.  It was met by a loud cheer from both his teammates and the crowd.

Tomorrow will be our last day covering training camp.  However, we have some more post-practice interviews that we will be posting later today and throughout the weekend (and early into next week).