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Patriots hit the lights; Friday notebook

The Patriots held practice inside Gillette Stadium Friday night in front of an energetic group of season-ticket members.

On a night when Ty Law was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, the cornerback from the same hometown with Hall of Fame credentials of his own spoke after practice inside Gillette Stadium. With the team set to head down to Washington for some joint practices with the Redskins next week, Revis said it was simply a matter of making sure the work gets done.

"We've been doing that all camp," he said in reference to working against another opponent. "We've been going at it hard against each other. The only thing we can control is finishing up training camp strong and preparing for the regular season."

Check out our favorite photos from the in-stadium training camp practice for season ticket members held on Friday, August 1, 2014.

Unfortunately for the 20,000 or so in attendance, Revis and the rest of the first units didn't get to do much during practice. With it marking the team's eighth workout in the last nine days, Bill Belichick chose to keep it light during the 90-minute session.

"Just getting a different look," Belichick said of the second units. "It's training camp so everybody's got some plays they'd like to have back. It's important to keep working at it."

The coach even spent time chatting with Law, Lawyer Milloy, Rodney Harrison and several other former Patriots on the sideline while the work on the field continued.

"That's a pretty good secondary over there," Belichick cracked. "With Ty and Otis [Smith] at corner and Lawyer and Rodney at safety and Troy Brown as the nickel back. That's a pretty special group."

As for the practice, Belichick was happy to get chance to get inside under the bright lights of Gillette Stadium.

"It's always nice to in front of the season-ticket holders with a lot of energy in the stadium," he said. "It was our first time on the new turf. It was good to experience the field, the stadium, work on the kicking game under the lights like it's going to be in the preseason games."

Stock Watch

Buy: Justin Jones – The enormous rookie tight end may not be the quickest cat on the field but he's been able to make some plays in recent day. On Friday night he got down the seam during an early 7-on-7 drill and made a difficult catch in traffic. He's shown to be a capable blocker early, and if he can catch it occasionally he could prove to be worth further developing.

Sell: Ryan Mallett – The backup quarterback got the opportunity to run with the second offense in 11-on-11 drills and did not perform well. He was intercepted by Logan Ryan on the first play, then overthrew a wide open Derrick Johnson on a deep ball a few plays later. Shortly thereafter he turned the wrong way and missed the handoff to Jonas Gray. Not the best sequence for the fourth-year quarterback.

Play of the Day: Punting from the 46-yard line, Ryan Allen launched a majestic spiral toward Brandon LaFell. LaFell, standing just inside his 10, signaled for a fair catch and ran up in an effort to deceive the coverage unit. It didn't matter because Allen's punt landed inside the 5 and spun dead at about the 2. Plus-50 punting was one of Allen's weaknesses last year so it was good to see him execute so well, even if it was just a practice setting.

Passing fancy

According to ESPNBoston.com the Patriots worked out free agent quarterback Brady Quinn on Monday. The report indicated that Quinn, the former first-round pick of the Cleveland Browns who also spent time with Denver, Kansas City, St. Louis and the Jets, was recently hired by Fox Sports as an analyst. He mentioned during an appearance on "The Dan Patrick Show" Friday that he worked out with a team earlier in the week but did not mention which one.

While the decision to work out Quinn was likely a matter of updating the team's emergency list for potential future needs, it is worth noting that he has experience working with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels in 2010 in Denver.

The Patriots currently have three quarterbacks in camp with Tom Brady, Mallett and rookie Jimmy Garoppolo. Mallett is entering the final year of his contract, however, and he has been the topic of trade discussions throughout the offseason. In the event of a deal, having a potential replacement like Quinn would make sense.

For his career Quinn has started 20 games and completed just under 54 percent of his passes with 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions for a passer rating of 64.4. His last NFL action came in 2012 with the Chiefs when he completed 112 of 197 passes for 1,141 yards and two touchdowns and eight interceptions in 10 games.

Attendance check

The Patriots were without 10 players for Friday night's practice. Wide receiver Aaron Dobson (foot) and Jeremy Gallon remained on PUP while rookie defensive tackle Dominique Easley (ACL), offensive lineman Chris Martin and linebacker Deontae Skinner remained on NFI. Tight end Michael Hoomanawanui (leg), rookie center Bryan Stork, rookie defensive back Jemea Thomas and rookie linebacker Cameron Gordon also missed practice. Running back Tyler Gaffney (knee) was the final player not in uniform as he prepares to undergo surgery on his torn lateral meniscus.

He hate us

Most players are eager to work against another team during the joint practices that have become commonplace around the league. Eagles cornerback Cary Williams is not one of them.

The veteran cornerback is no fan of New England and his fight with Aaron Dobson last year during training camp cost both the remainder of practice. On Friday he referenced Spygate when the topic of the Patriots was broached by Philadelphia media.

"They are cheaters," he said.

"I give them all the credit in the world, but one fact remains: They haven't won a Super Bowl since they got caught," Williams said, a blatant reference to the scandal that disrupted the Patriots 2007 Super Bowl run.

Williams also said there's not much to be gained from practicing with the Patriots, which will be the case when the Eagles travel to Foxborough for workouts from Aug. 12-14 before the teams go at it in a preseason game Aug. 15.

"To me, it's not benefiting us, because they've already proven who they are," Williams said. "That's their history. I don't like them, not only because of that. I just don't like them."

Sirius-ly speaking

Jim Miller and Pat Kirwan of Sirius XM NFL Radio were at camp during the week and had several members of the Patriots join them. Interviews with Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick, Brady, Chandler Jones, Rob Ninkovich, Shane Vereen, Stevan Ridley and Devin McCourty were part of a four-hour program and some interesting tidbits were shared.

Ridley revealed his offseason diet did not sit well with Belichick. "Obviously that didn't go too well. Coach still has me in there in 'Fat Camp' and running and trying to get this weight off me," Ridley said.

Kraft offered his thoughts on Darrelle Revis: "He does everything with such ease. His sense of anticipation and the way he moves, he's not breathless, he's just doing everything in stride. What I like about him and maybe some of the media had portrayed him differently before he came here, he's a very understated kind of guy. There is not a lot of bravado. I notice a lot other guys are drawn to him and he does it, in in my opinion, in a very classy way, an understated way."

McCourty spoke about an underrated part of his preparation regarding Mallett. "That dude can sling the ball," McCourty said. "His rookie year was during the lockout and I remember the player-organized camp we had and you could just hear the ball coming out of his hand. At times you think you're in the deep part of the field and you realize you're not when Mallett's throwing the ball. There are a couple guys when you play – the Joe Flaccos, the Ben Roethlisbergers -- who have those big arms as well. Mallett really prepares you for that."

Extra points

The Patriots have just two kickers in camp – Stephen Gostkowski and punter Ryan Allen – which makes New England one of six teams in the league with just one of each, according to team websites. Of the 24 others, 15 have two placekickers, 13 have two punters and four have two of each. Two teams, the Raiders and the Bengals, have on of each as well as players listed as kicker/punter.

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