Bill Belichick said he and his team would treat Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week like a Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during regular season game preparation.
And while the extent of the preparation may be less than for a regular season game, Friday practices are usually held without pads and include some red zone work, two-minute drill work, special teams and some review.
That's pretty much what went on out on the practice field Thursday afternoon. Scout team players, as they typically do during game preparation weeks, impersonated some of the Redskins players while running Washington's plays off cards. Pepper Johnson will hold up cards to show the scout team what it's running on a particular to play to familiarize the other side of the ball with what it might see during the game.
Quarterback Tom Brady was among several veterans – Roman Phifer, Christian Fauria, Troy Brown, Ted Johnson and Joe Andruzzi included – who received what has become known as the veteran's day off.
Rohan Davey received a majority of the snaps with the first unit and could get his shot to run with the second team in Saturday's game. Davey is being given a legitimate opportunity to compete with Damon Huard to back up Brady. But it was Huard who threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Thabiti Davis from about 30 yards out during hurry-up work and has held off Davey's challenge thus far.
With Andruzzi on the sideline, Russ Hochstein worked at right guard while Tom Ashworth and Adrian Klemm rotated at right tackle. Ashworth continues to get a look in what has developed into a fairly even competition considering where the two started camp.
Also, rookie fourth round pick Asante Samuel worked with the first unit at cornerback opposite Ty Law while Eugene Wilson worked with the second team.
After working in the red area and on the hurry-up, the team reviewed some of the first and second down plays it intends to run Saturday night to polish up any aspects that may not have been run perfectly earlier in the week.
Special teams received its time both at the start of practice and near its conclusion. The kick return team worked on specific situations in regards to time remaining on the clock and different kicks such as squibs or short kicks. The field goal team also took some reps near the end of the session.
Safety Aric Morris returned to practice after sitting out yesterday. The players who sat out the workout other than those given the day off included wide receiver Chas Gessner, linebacker Tully Banta-Cain, cornerback Otis Smith, offensive linemen Kenyatta Jones and Gene Mruczkowski, and running back Antwoine Womack.
The Patriots leave for Washington Friday afternoon and take on the Redskins Saturday night at 8 p.m. at FedExField.
