Wednesday's afternoon practice session was a lighter no-pads workout following a physical two-hour morning session, and its highlight was offensive coordinator Charlie Weis's appearance. Weis wheeled onto the practice field in a motorized cart and received a nice applause from fans.
Weis is still recovering from the complications of a gastric bypass and is unable to walk as a result of nerve damage in his legs. Weis has been in nighttime meetings the past few days, but hadn't been out to practice until Wednesday in the 90-plus degree heat.
He certainly was not his loud, boisterous self, but he did communicate with his personnel individually.
Fundamentals continue to garner their share of practice time and Bill Belichick thinks of everything. This afternoon, the defense lined up for a play and on the snap, a ball boy would run down the sideline with the entire defense required to chase him and touch him to practice taking the proper angles to the ball carrier.
Without pads on, the team worked mostly on the passing game starting with some 6-on-7 drills with a quarterback, tight ends, running back and wide receivers against linebackers and defensive backs. Linebacker Larry Izzo made a nice deflection of a fade down the left sideline when matched up with J.R. Redmond out of the backfield. Quarterback Damon Huard went right after the apparent mismatch, but Izzo stayed with the third-year back.
Quarterback Tom Brady hooked up on a 10-yard slant in which Brown caught the pass on the run and exploded by the defense, but Brady seemed to hesitate on some of his throws, double clutching and pulling the ball down at times.
The full team also worked on pass plays with the defense on one side of the field and the offense on the other to simulate live game substitutions based on situations. Rohan Davey continued a string day when he hit Deion Branch in stride over the middle in a play similar to the Brady-Brown hook-up.
The second offense and defense ran two series of hurry-up with each side coming out ahead. On the first series, the Huard-led offense actually went backwards after a second down sack set up third-and-15. After an incompletion, Huard was sacked again on fourth down by safety Antwan Harris.
The offense got its revenge on the next series when Huard completed 4-of-5 passes with his only incompletion coming on a spike to stop the clock. He opened with a short pass to David Givens and then hit Fred "Boom Boom" Coleman, who did a nice job keeping his feet in bounds on a tough catch, for about 15 yards. He went back to Given for a short gain, spiked the ball and then watched Given make a terrific diving catch in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
During Brad Seely's special teams segment, the punt team worked on kicking from its own end zone with Troy Brown and Kevin Faulk fielding the kicks.
INJURY CHANGE
Cornerback Brock Williams was added to the injury list after being carted off at the end of the morning practice. His status will be updated as soon as the information becomes available.
