FOXBORO -- Even though his vertebrae may have gotten jumbled, Doug Flutie's spunk is intact.

During yesterday morning's cool moist practice at Gillette, the 42-year-old got picked on a little dive pass intended for Benjamin Watson.

Linebacker Don Davis headed for the sidelines and Flutie -- to his credit -- sprinted out to head him off before he got to the end zone. This left Davis with no other option than to discard Flutie, which he did with a big cuff of his right hand. Flutie fell backwards, rolled over and sprung to his feet. Davis scored.

That was one highlight from a pretty entertaining practice.

Quarterback Tom Brady had a quiet day throwing the ball but did take a few reps early in practice.

Head coach Bill Belichick said that Brady's workload is not being managed to preserve his arm. He threw liberally on Sunday.

A few other notes from the run-through:

Monty Beisel practiced with a red "no contact" jersey on, an unusual outfit for a linebacker.

Flutie hit Deion Branch with a beautifully thrown bomb over Larry Izzo.

Ben Watson ran smoothly and without a trace of a problem in his second day back from missing a significant chunk of time.

Running backs coach Ivan Fears, who was out with a medical issue for the first part of camp, was back for his second day.

Corey Dillon, awaiting delivery of a baby, was not at practice.

Decisiveness didn't mark Rohan Davey's practice. On three different occasions, he held the ball well past what would be prudent. Once, he got picked by Chad Scott on a bomb. He also got in a late downfield completion to Eugene Baker.

Tyrone Poole had a nice rolling interception on the sidelines of a Matt Cassel pass.

Kyle Eckel, Patrick Pass, Kory Chapman and Patrick Pass were the only running backs on duty.

Also sitting were: Brandon Gorin (RT), Troy Brown (WR), Cedric James (WR), P.K. Sam (WR), David Terrell (WR), Cedric Cobbs (RB), Jed Weaver (TE), Chad Morton (KR), Bethel Johnson (WR), Ty Warren (DE), Santonio Thomas (DL), Tully Banta-Cain (LB), Andre Torrey (LB), Mike Vrabel (LB), Randall Gay (CB), Duane Starks (CB) and Rodney Harrison (S).

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