{"id":7224,"date":"2016-08-03T19:01:09","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T23:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=7224"},"modified":"2016-08-03T19:01:09","modified_gmt":"2016-08-03T23:01:09","slug":"patriots-training-camp-practice-observations-8-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2016\/08\/03\/patriots-training-camp-practice-observations-8-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots Training Camp Practice Observations 8-3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Physical Session, Heavy on Situational Football<\/h2>\n

The Patriots concluded their sixth training camp practice on Wednesday morning in full pads, their third such workout under sunny, warm skies at the Gillette Stadium practice fields. The hitting was heavier than in any session yet with the focus of the day being situational football.<\/p>\n

Not Practicing<\/strong>: Danny Amendola, Julian Edelman, Dion Lewis, Tre\u2019 Jackson, Sebastian Vollmer, Nate Ebner (Olympic Games), Jonathan Cooper, Keshawn Martin, Chris Hogan, Donald Brown, Bryan Stork, Clay Harbor<\/p>\n

Alan Branch passed his conditioning run and was back at practice today. But the team was easing him in.<\/p>\n

Early Focus on the Running Game: <\/strong>The morning started out with the fans, the smallest crowd to date, singing a Happy Birthday ditty to QB Tom Brady who acknowledged the gesture with a wave to the carolers.<\/p>\n

The early focus was on the running game, LeGarrette Blount seems very healthy this summer and he, Tyler Gaffney, D.J. Foster, Brandon Bolden and James White all saw some work carrying the ball. Gaffney did some of his best running of the summer today, displaying good vision and hitting the holes quickly. There was some solid hitting going on with some audible pops heard up in the stands for the first time.<\/p>\n

With Bryan Stork out, David Andrews, Joe Thuney, and Kyler Kerbyson all got work at center. Thuney seems to be really catching the eye of the coaches, especially Dante Scarnecchia. The rookie has stood out as arguably the best OL in camp thus far. They keep putting more on his plate and he continues to excel. Shaq Mason seems to be healthy now and after watching most of Monday\u2019s practice from the side, got a lot of work inside.<\/p>\n

\"Brown

Brown and Kuhn stuff the hole<\/p><\/div>\n

Markus Kuhn and Malcom Brown combined for a nice stop early in situational work. They were doubled and filled the hole, allowing Dont\u2019a Hightower to come in and stop Blount for no gain.<\/p>\n

Quarterbacks Start Slowly:<\/strong> Both Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo started slowly in the early 7-on-7 drills. While neither looked particularly sharp, Jacoby Brissett shook off his poor showing on Monday night and followed that up with perhaps his best practice this summer.<\/p>\n

But Brady and Jimmy G. heated up once the team did their first 11-on-11 drill. Aaron Dobson worked across the middle and easily beat his coverage in the right corner of the end zone for a TD on the pass from Garoppolo.<\/p>\n