For the second day in a row, the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints shared a practice field in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. The teams will face off in week two of this year's preseason on Saturday and practice together to prepare for that game. The session was open to fans and the media.
Working through the Twitterverse, here are some notes about today's joint practice session:
Attendance
-- The following players did not practice (18): Julian Edelman, Aaron Dobson, Brandon LaFell, Darryl Roberts, Travaris Cadet, Dane Fletcher, Eric Martin, Ryan Wendell, Bryan Stork, Caylin Hauptmann, Rufus Johnson, Joe Vellano, Trey Flowers, Jake Bequette, Scott Chandler, Chris Jones, Brian Tyms, Eric Kettani.
-- Tyms and Kettani are new additons to the list of absent players.
-- Josh Kline returned as a full participant.
Injuries
-- No Patriots injuries were announced.
Offensive Notes
-- According to Mark Daniels the quarterbacks performed as follows:
11-on-11s:
Tom Brady: 16/18
Ryan Lindley: 6/6
Drew Brees: 7/10
-- Jimmy Garoppolo did not get a snap during team work.
-- The Patriots first-team offense looked really, really good during 11-on-11s: the unit had five drives and scored five touchdowns during their first turn. Brady was 8 of 10 with five touchdown passes, during his next segment he went 8 for 8.
-- Brady also went 12 of 14 during 7-on-7s with eight touchdown passes to, among others, Rob Gronkowski and Matthew Slater from 30 yards out and Jonas Gray from the 20.
-- Brady also hit Slater for a 40-yard touchdown after perfectly selling the play action. He connected with Boyce from the same distance as well.
-- The Brady-Gronkowski connection was firing on all cylinders.
-- Gronkowski, however, also had "a couple of drops" during 11-on-11s.
-- Cameron Fleming lost a 1-on-1 against linebacker Davis Tull due to a spin move by the Saint.
Defensive Notes
-- After a rough session yesterday, Malcolm Butler bounced back: he did not allow a catch and at one point impressively knocked away a pass intended for receiver Marques Colston.
-- Malcom Brown had "a field day" against the Saints' guards.
-- Geneo Grissom, who had a strong day yesterday, looked good today as well.
-- Saint wide receiver Brandin Cooks beat Bradley Fletcher for a 30-yard score.
-- Robert McClain gave up a touchdown pass to wide receiver Willie Snead.
-- At one point, the secondary surrounding Devin McCourty consisted of Jimmy Jean, Daxton Swanson and Nate Ebner.
Special Teams Notes
-- Ryan Allen had one punt with a hangtime of 5.18 seconds and another one with 5.00 seconds.
-- Danny Amendola, Chris Harper and Patrick Chung worked as the punt returners.
-- Robert McClain and Slater worked as the punt team gunners.
Miscellaneous
-- Duron Harmon and Saints wideout Willie Snead had to be separated at one point. Snead and Amendola as well.
-- Former Patriot Randy Moss attended the session.
-- Like yesterday, the crowd was rather pro-Patriots.