Yesterday, he New England Patriots had their second off day of this year’s training camp. They returned to the practice fields behind Gillette Stadium today for their ninth session – once again held under crystal clear skies.
As has been the case on Friday, the team held an intra-squad scrimmage in full pads. And as has been the case on Friday as well, the team led by Tom Brady (this time with a little help from Jacoby Brissett) beat the team led by Jimmy Garoppolo; this time by an 11-10 score.
Attendance
The list of players that did not practice looked as follows: RB Dion Lewis (PUP), WR Danny Amendola (PUP), WR Keshawn Martin, TE Bryce Williams, OC Bryan Stork, OT Sebastian Vollmer (PUP), OG Tre’ Jackson (PUP), OG Jonathan Cooper, LB Jonathan Freeny, SS Nate Ebner.
Wide receiver Julian Edelman and tight end Clay Harbor were activated off the PUP list and returned to practice. Running back Donald Brown returned as well.
While they did not participate in practice, Stork, Jackson and Freeny were spotted working with trainers on another field. Jonathan Cooper was also spotted.
Injuries
Marcus Cannon appeared to have injured his right arm. It did not appear to be serious, though.
Offense
The quarterbacks performed as follows:
11-vs-11:
Tom Brady: 13 of 24, 1 TD, 1 INT
Jimmy Garoppolo: 15 of 24, TD
Jacoby Brissett: 1 of 2
While the offensive weapons were relatively even split on Friday, Garoppolo saw Chris Hogan, Martellus Bennett and Malcolm Mitchell added to his team, which already included Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Dobson.
Bennett caught Garoppolo’s lone touchdown pass of the day, while Brady’s was caught by wide receiver DeAndre Carter – on fourth down on the final two-minute drive. Carter was Brady’s favorite touchdown of the day, catching six passes.
Brady also connected with tight end A.J. Derby to convert the subsequent two-point conversion and give his team the win.
At one point, Brady was able to scramble for a first down, after which he spiked the ball. He also converted two quarterback sneaks later in practice.
While Brissett was quarterbacking the team initially led by Brady, the future Hall of Fame quarterback worked with Edelman, who did not partake in the scrimmage, 1-on-1 on a separate field.
The offenses placed a lot of focus on the running game with LeGarrette Blount being the feature back of Garoppolo’s team and Tyler Gaffney being the workhorse behind Brady. The passing game, on the other hand, was up and down today.
Brandon Bolden dropped a pass on back-to-back plays, while Gronkowski had another drop today.
Defense
The secondary played physical football today, but got away with numerous would-be pass interference calls.
Devin McCourty was in coverage on Bennett’s touchdown reception. McCourty also dropped an interception.
Cedric Thompson did not and intercepted Brady on an overthrow intended for Derby.
Rookie cornerback Cyrus Jones blanketed rookie wideout Mitchell today.
Special teams
Stephen Gostkowski was shaky today, as he missed three kicks during drills and one more – from around 40 yards away – during the scrimmage. He also hit two attempts in the team portion of practice, though.
Ryan Allen was pretty busy during the scrimmage: he had to punt the ball ten times.