After their week 10 road victory over the Denver Broncos, the New England Patriots elected to stay in Colorado to prepare for their matchup versus the Oakland Raiders on Sunday. The team returned to practice at the facilities of the United States Air Force Academy today and subsequently released the first practice report of the week.
Let's take a look at it:
Did not participate
OT Marcus Cannon (ankle)
WR Chris Hogan (shoulder)
WR Matthew Slater (hamstring)
Marcus Cannon and Chris Hogan both missed the game against the Broncos and, as first reported by ESPN Boston's Mike Reiss, remained in Massachusetts to work on their respective ailments. They will be joined by Matthew Slater, who exited Sunday's game with a hamstring issue and flew back from Colorado. As a result, all three will highly likely miss this week's game in Mexico City.
Limited participation
WR Danny Amendola (knee)
TE Martellus Bennett (shoulder/hamstring)
DT Alan Branch (neck)
DT Malcom Brown (ankle)
DE Cassius Marsh (shoulder)
CB Eric Rowe (groin)
After missing the Patriots' last two weeks due to an ankle injury, Malcom Brown returned to practice in limited capacity. While it would still not be a surprise to ultimately see the 23-year old miss Sunday's game, him being back on the practice fields certainly is a positive development.
Eric Rowe and Cassius Marsh were also both out against the Broncos but back on the practice fields today. The two defenders were limited participants all of last week but were ultimately deactivated on game day; they seem to be well on their way back to seeing actual game action again.
The rest of the limited players looks similar to last week as both Danny Amendola and Martellus Bennett were limited leading up to the Broncos game as well – Bennett's hamstring injury is new, though. And there also is one new addition to the list: Alan Branch, who apparently is dealing with a neck injury.