After a shorter practice on Wednesday at less than full-speed, the team was back in pads Thursday in preparation for their first scrimmage on Friday.

* In order to get ready for Friday's scrimmage, which will be largely unscripted, Joe Judge inserted team portions at the end of practice with Jason Garrett and Patrick Graham calling the offense and defense through walkie-talkies on the sideline. The next-to-last period was a normal team session with the offense facing the defense. On the first play of the period, a pass bounced off the hands of a wide receiver and Julian Love managed to grab the interception and take it the other way.

* The last part of practice featured 13 plays of no-huddle, with six going to Daniel Jones and his unit, and the next seven going to Colt McCoy. Jones' group was efficient, completing three passes and running it three times. Dion Lewis had an explosive run for a big gain on the second play of the series. He has looked spry throughout camp. Colt McCoy ended his set of plays with one of the bigger pass plays of camp thus far, hitting David Sills over the top down the left sideline for a touchdown. Earlier in practice, Sills did a nice job winning at the line of scrimmage against press coverage.

* Graham Gano kicked for the first time and made all six of his field goal attempts. The operation with long snapper Casey Kreiter and holder Riley Dixon was smooth.

* During the 1-on-1 periods early in practice, cornerbacks and receivers faced off with Daniel Jones and Alex Tanney as the quarterbacks. Alex Bachman and Grant Haley went against each other a couple of times with each player winning a rep. Bachman's quickness will be a good test for Haley, who could be squaring off against similar slot receivers often this season.

* Darnay Holmes got his hand on another pass during 1-on-1s, knocking the ball away. He has been active. Wide receiver C.J. Board continues to impress. He is quick and sudden at the top of his routes and has been able to get separation on every level of the defense. 

* While wide receiver and cornerbacks were doing 1-on-1s, the tight ends, running backs, linebackers and safeties had a chance to compete against one another. The first part of their session featured coverage opportunities. Xavier McKinney nearly grabbed his second interception of camp. He knocked the ball away but couldn't come up with the pick. After they finished practicing coverage, the group competed against one another in head-to-head pass rush/pass protection drills.

* The early parts of practice in team and 7-on-7 periods featured a lot of short and intermediate passes and running plays. Saquon Barkley was fired up after making a contested catch.

* There was also a separate session where the offensive and defensive lines were working against each other in executing and protecting against various twists and blitzes. This was designed to work on the coordination and communication between offensive linemen. It also helps the timing of the defensive front to execute those maneuvers at full speed.

*While those drills were taking place on one field, punt return drills were being run on the adjacent one. Joe Judge put his old special team coordinator hat on and was right in the middle of the drill. As the punt returners were readying themselves to catch the ball, Judge would approach and stand next to them to mimic what returners have to deal with when making a fair catch with defenders surrounding them. There was only one muff during the drill.

* The team also ran the same tackling drills they ran at Tuesday night's practice.

* Tight end Rysen John caught a couple of passes in practice, including one put on his back hip that he had to adjust to while the ball was in the air.