FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The defining moment of Monday’s practice came after Tom Brady’s last throw. After the quarterback missed James White, he immediately asked for the ball back. Once the ball was back in his hand, Brady turned around and punted it into the crowd.

The Patriots’ 13th day of training camp was a frustrating one for Brady and the offense. Following the quarterback’s strongest day at camp, Monday was one of his worst as the session was full of incomplete passes, dropped passes and miscommunication.

Brady ultimately finished the practice going 15 for 28 with an interception and it was tough throughout the morning.

Brady started practice going 1 for 5 as he struggled with accuracy at first. Following another tough session, he was sitting at 4 for 11. The quarterback got into a rhythm midway through the session, before he was intercepted by rookie JC Jackson on an underthrown deep ball to Phillip Dorsett. In his two final rounds of full-team drills, Brady saw Chris Hogan and Rob Gronkowski drop passes. Before you knew it, Brady was punting a ball into the stands.

Drops were a common theme on this foggy day at Gillette. Brian Hoyer saw four targets drop passes as he finished 12 for 19 with an interception. At one point, he had three targets drop three passes in a row – Paul Turner, James White and Will Tye. Devin Lucien also had a drop. On the play Hoyer was intercepted, by Stephon Gilmore, it appeared that Riley McCarron ran the wrong route.

On defense, Jackson continues to have a solid camp. Along with his interception, the rookie also had two pass breakups. Geneo Grissom and Patrick Chung also had breakups.

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Jason McCourty was lined up opposite of Gilmore in the Patriots’ starting defense. The veteran has mainly been with the second-team unit during camp so Monday’s development was noteworthy.

On the injury front, Jeremy Hill walked off the field clutching the back of his right leg following a handoff. He didn’t take another rep after that. He didn’t leave the practice field, either, but was stationed on the sideline for the duration of practice.

After returning from the Physically Unable to Play list last week, Patriots special teams ace Matthew Slater has largely been limited at practice.

On Monday, he was absent.

Slater, running backs Rex Burkhead and Sony Michel, offensive tackle Marcus Cannon and linebacker Harvey Langi were all absent.

That same group missed Sunday’s session, New England’s first since beating Washington 26-17 in its preseason opener.

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Slater appeared, but was limited.

Defensive end Trey Flowers and cornerback Ryan Lewis were also limited for the second straight day. Wide receiver/kick returner Cordarrelle Patterson joined the pair on a lower conditioning field. This is the first day Patterson has been limited all camp.

He did not play Thursday.

The reason for Jason McCourty’s absence from the Patriots’ preseason win over Washington remained as foggy as the weather Monday morning.

Coach Bill Belichick praised the cornerback presence on the team, but offered nothing about why the eight-year veteran didn’t play.

Belichick deflected any question about whether McCourty was injured.


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