FOXBORO - When the storm clouds roll into Foxboro, it's not what Bill Belichick is looking for.

Sunday's second practice session was relocated to the Dana-Farber Field House because of steady rain in the afternoon, and while the new enclosure for the Patriots' auxiliary practice field is a huge improvement over the old "bubble" that once stood on the site, it's still only barely adequate to house the sort of practices that take place in training camp.

"It's 70 yards," the Patriots' coach said at his Monday press conference, "and that's tight for training camp when you have 70-some players out on the field. It's one thing in the regular season when you're in the 50s usually … it squeezes you a little bit if you had to hold practice in there.

"It's a lot better than what we had in the old one, which was about 40 yards," he said. "Even when we practice in the stadium, it's tight. But usually when we do that, it's just about all teamwork, and the only field we're using is the game field because we're doing situations and things like that."

Because training camp practices generally have two or three position groups broken off from a main body of players who might be doing 7-on-7 or 11-on-11 running or passing drills, a two-field expanse is almost a necessity.

When the Patriots trained at then-Bryant College, they had two other football-sized field areas available to them other than the two main practice fields. Without the benefit of an enclosed field, they would either stage a limited practice on an auxiliary field during inclement weather to preserve the main fields, or take some of the drills inside the Tartan-surfaced field house adjacent to the gymnasium. In Foxboro, the Patriots have the options of three grass practice fields (although one is generally reserved for regular-season use to preserve its condition), the 70-yard FieldTurf expanse inside the Dana-Farber Field House, and the FieldTurf playing surface inside Gillette Stadium, although that has been off-limits since the beginning of camp because of this past weekend's country music festival.

Belichick said Sunday's schedule precluded the need for the team to spread out too much, so the practice inside the field house was manageable.

"We pretty much got done what we wanted to get done yesterday," Belichick said of the afternoon practice, which was little more than a glorified walkthrough, "but that was just the way the schedule fell. Anything less than probably two full fields, you're probably going to get squeezed a little bit if you have all of the drills going on that you'd normally have in the individual periods of training camp."

They're special

Belichick, a former special teams coach with the Detroit Lions, Denver Broncos and New York Giants, said it puzzled him that more special teams coaches haven't made it to the top rung of the coaching ladder.

"It was great, because you deal with every player on the team," he said. "Once you start dealing with different players, there's a little different mentality between different groups of players … it's not all the same, and all people aren't the same, too. The good thing about being a special teams coach is you dealt with all the players every week, and in most cases, it wasn't really what their number one thing was. That made it a little more challenging.

"It was a great experience, and it really prepared me for dealing with the whole team and not just one specific group," he said. "To be honest, it always surprises me when I think about it that how few head coaches are picked from among the special teams coaches."

Belichick cited former Eagles' and Chiefs' coach Dick Vermeil as one who shared a similar experience from having served as George Allen's special teams coach.

"I'm sure he thought it was very beneficial to him," he said. "Looking back, I wouldn't trade it for anything." Quick kicks

Although Belichick said early in his press conference that cornerback Chad Scott was still in the "day-to-day" category with his injured left knee, the days have grown shorter for Scott, who was officially placed on the injured reserve list Tuesday and will be out for the season. Scott, a 10th-year veteran who was seen as a possible starter in the event Asante Samuel continues his holdout, injured the joint in the second practice of the year ...

Tedy Bruschi got a big cheer from the faithful at Monday afternoon's practice when, during blitz pickup drills, he deftly fended off blocker Heath Evans and closed in quickly upon quarterback Matt Gutierrez ... The catches nearest to the sidelines tend to get the biggest cheers, but fans should notice the chemistry that Tom Brady is developing with Wesley Welker in the slot ... Kevin Faulk raised eyebrows by beating cornerback Ellis Hobbs to a long bomb ...Faulk, Welker and Bam Childress were returning punts during special-teams drills ...

Another example of fans not knowing what they see at training camp: Faulk got a cheer for breaking off right tackle for a big gain when the No. 1 offense faced its defensive counterparts, but they failed to notice Rodney Harrison tapping him before he made it out of the backfield. In a real game, Faulk would have lost 3 yards ... Randy Moss went up over Gemara Williams for a long gain, making it look effortless.