GREEN BAY, Wis. -- A collective hush fell over Ray Nitschke Field during Monday's practice, when rookie receiver Ty Montgomery -- one of the stars of Green Bay Packers training camp -- needed help getting to the sideline.
"I got hit in the gonads," Montgomery said later. "Twice."
The first time, he kept running.
"I was like, 'OK that one hurt, but I'm going to finish," he said.
After the second one, he went down. It was more than just a fist to the groin area.
"I think a club the second time got me in the same sweet spot," he said.
That had to be linebacker Nate Palmer, who has a club-like cast on his injured left hand.
Nevertheless, Montgomery came back to make another one of the eye-catching plays he's made throughout camp. During a red zone period, the third-round pick from Stanford made a leaping grab in the end zone on a fade from quarterback Scott Tolzien over cornerback Quinten Rollins.
So far in camp, Montgomery has caught deep balls using his speed, made defenders miss with his quick-twitch change of direction and now flashed his leaping ability.
"No matter how the ball is thrown to me, it's my job as a receiver to adjust and make the catch," he said. "That's part of being a receiver and that's what I pride myself on is catching the ball when it comes my way."
Here are some other notes from Monday's practice:
Schedule change: With the shift from 8:20 a.m. practices to mid-day workouts, the Packers are now in a regular-season mode even though there are still eight more open training camp practices and all four preseason games to go before final roster cuts. "I thought it was important to get the players on the in-season regimen as fast as possible," McCarthy said before practice. "Obviously, we're in a quick week here. We'll practice today, tomorrow we're going to cut that practice back some and then practice Wednesday and get on a plane to go to New England."
Competition over: With all of the offensive and defensive installations completed, the practice focused largely on game preparation. That meant there were only two competitive periods in practice: A six-play red zone period that featured mostly first- and second-stringers and ended with Montgomery's touchdown catch, and a simulated two-minute drill between third-stringers.
Hundley's turn: In that two-minute drill, rookie quarterback Brett Hundley led the offense on an 11-play, 65-yard drive that he capped with 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Harold Spears. Hundley completed 7 of 9 passes, not including two spikes to stop the clock. The biggest play on the drive was a 26-yard completion to rookie tight end Kennard Backman against linebacker Jermauria Rasco down the seam.
Crowd noise: McCarthy used piped-in crowd noise for the first time in camp to give the offense a taste of what it might face in New England on Thursday.
One on ones: Tackle Bryan Bulaga's record (9-0) remained perfect in the one-on-one pass blocking drill when he stopped Datone Jones. It was his only turn in the drill. There are no longer any winless players in the drill after defensive tackle Lavon Hooks (who had been 0-7) beat tackle Jeremy Vujnovich. Hooks also had a good turn against tackle Fabbians Ebbele but couldn't quite win it.
Medical report: Defensive tackle Mike Daniels (ankle) missed his first practice of camp. Others who did not practice were: receiver Adrian Coxson (concussion), receiver Javess Blue (shoulder), receiver Ricky Collins (heel), tackle Vince Kowalski (concussion), linebacker Nick Perry (groin), receiver Jared Abbrederis (concussion) and defensive tackle Letroy Guion (hamstring).