FOXBOROUGH – Before heading out to Minnesota on Tuesday for another important week, the Patriots had a more game-week like practice on Monday morning.
It was mostly a walkthrough with some scout team looks, mirroring a few things the team might see against the Vikings, specifically defensively with Brian Flores running the show for Minnesota.
Tuesday’s practice was closed to the public as training camp is technically over and we’ve hit the official ‘preseason’ stage despite already being one exhibition game in. After stretching and indy periods, the Pats began some team work with a 3-on-5 setup for the receivers and DBs, with the defense getting the advantage numbers wise.
While most drills were half speed throughout the hour-and-45 minute session, Drake Maye did hit Pop Douglas, Efton Chism III, Austin Hooper and Gee Scott Jr. during his first look. Josh Dobbs hit a short completion to Kayshon Boutte, but Carlton Davis III and Dell Pettus had back-to-back pass break ups before an incompletion to Kyle Williams. Maye also added a beautiful ball on a deep-ish corner route to Mack Hollins during another series in this particular set up.
During another team walkthrough/scout period, Anfernee Jennings burned Will Campbell on the first snap for what would have been a sack, but the ball was ‘completed’ to Pop. A couple snaps later, Morgan Moses did a great job stopping a Truman Jones rush off the edge. Maye had completions to Hollins, Stefon Diggs and two to Pop. Jennings got the best of Campbell again a bit later. It was also interesting to see the amount of reps other guys like Jack Conley and Alec Lindstrom got, probably a sign that they’ll probably see some significant time in the preseason game on Saturday.
After that was a field goal period and let’s just say it was ugly. That’s also putting it nicely. Andy Borregales went 2-4 while Parker Romo was 1-4. Does anyone want the job?
After some special teams and kick off return work, Vrabel huddled the team together for a talk before heading back into a team period. Maye and Dobbs each had a quick series, with Maye completing passes to Diggs and Boutte and runs by Antonio Gibson and TreVeyon Henderson that didn’t amount to much, but again, it wasn’t really full speed. Jennings had a ‘sack’ during Dobbs’ series, Jack Gibbens blew up a screen and Hollins caught a slant. The highlight of the day came on a jump ball deep for Javon Baker who caught it in double coverage.
The final period of the day may have been the most alarming, with the Patriots working on end-of-game situations with time not on their side (I believe 1:15 was on the clock). Here’s how the one and only series for Maye went:
-Pressure from K’Lavon Chaisson forces an incompletion
-Completion to Hooper on the sideline
-Crosser to Pop
-‘Sack’ for Chaisson against Campbell but technically completed to Henderson
-Chaisson forces an incompletion to Pop with pressure again
-PBU for Marcus Jones against Pop
-Incompletion on a comeback to Diggs vs. Alex Austin
-False start
-Christian Elliss and Craig Woodson pressure forces an incompletion
-Pressure from Chaisson forces an incompletion on a very rushed screen
-Incomplete deep to Hollins against Davis III
-Draw to Gibson
-Maye spikes it with 6 seconds remaining
-Borregales misses a 60-ish yard field goal
Ultimately, the work the Patriots get against the Vikings on Wednesday and Thursday will be more important than anything that happened on Monday, but it’s worth being small-C concerned with how things looked as New England heads out on the road for the first time.