The Patriots just completed their Monday afternoon practice, which was the team’s 10th thus far in training camp and first held in shorts and shells. The team worked on a variety of red zone passing drills and Scott O’Brien got some time to drill his punt team.

Those missing from the workout included Jonathan Wilhite, Shawn Springs, Tedy Bruschi, Al Johnson, George Bussey, Ryan O’Callaghan, Benjamin Watson, Le Kevin Smith, Myron Pryor and Richard Seymour. The boys on PUP/NFI remained on those lists – Brandon Tate, Rich Ohrnberger, Mark LeVoir, Darryl Richard, Ty Warren and Shawn Crable.

Here are my observations from the afternoon’s work:

– The offense looked sharp throughout. From the drills in individual work to the actual application of that during the team period, Tom Brady found open receivers and rarely missed them. It was one of the better afternoons for the guys in white shirts.

– I know this qualifies as the Earth is round-type of news, but my God is Randy Moss gifted. He and the receivers took part in a drill where passes were short passes were thrown across the middle and they had to catch them with one hand. Moss made his grabs look so effortless it was amazing. The other receivers managed to catch most of their chances, but none looked like Moss. He later made a one-handed grab in the corner of the end zone for a touchdown in a 7-on-7 drill.

– Before practice Wes Welker and Julian Edelman caught punts off the Jugs machine and the returners made things more difficult on themselves by not only holding a ball in one hand but tossing it in the air as they caught the punt, then re-catching it. At one point Welker caught one, tossed another in the air and caught it again, and then grabbed a third with one hand while he tossed one of the two in the air again. He wound up with three footballs before he was done.

– Brady’s birthday celebrations weren’t limited to the morning practice. Matt Light stole the quarterback’s helmet during the pre-practice stretching routine and Brady couldn’t find it for a while. Once he did, the team came together to start practice, but not before Dan Koppen delivered a cake to No. 12’s head, and Light then doused him with a bucket of Gatorade. It took Brady a good five minutes to join his fellow quarterbacks as he wiped down with a towel.

– Brady hooked up with Chris Baker for a nice touchdown during 7-on-7 red zone work. Baker made a nice move to the inside slot and Brady’s pass was perfect. The play was especially noteworthy because the two failed to connect on a similar play in the morning, and then spent some extra time working on their timing after practice.

– The punt unit got some situational work in as they tried some plus-50 kicks, downing the ball near the goal line and working under a heavy rush.

– The team period saw some vintage Brady as the dime defense showed blitz in the red area and the quarterback handled it perfectly. After noticing Brandon Meriweather creeping toward the line, Brady called out the protection, read where the pressure was coming from and floated a beauty outside to Welker, who beat Darius Butler for the touchdown.

– The offense was foiled on a hurry up drive toward the end of practice and Meriweather got his revenge. Brady hit Joey Galloway on a bomb down to the 11-yard line to start the drive. The offense rushed to the line to get the next play off, which was an incomplete pass intended for Moss. After a short completion, Brady tried to hit Moss along the backline of the end zone but came up short when Meriweather came up with the pick. The drill may have been a late-game situation where the offense needed a touchdown and there was only time for one more play. Lending further credence to that theory was Meriweather’s aborted runback, which started with him bringing the ball out of the end zone before dropping to the ground inside the 5. He then did a little Curly shuffle, spinning around with his legs as he held the ball under his arm.