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Flowers, Chung Return To Practice For Patriots

BOSTON (CBS) -- The Patriots had both good news and bad news on the injury front Wednesday.

The bad news is pretty bad, as both running back Rex Burkhead and linebacker Ja'Whaun Bentley were placed on IR. But the good news is both defensive end Trey Flowers and Patrick Chung returned to practice after missing Sunday night's loss to the Lions with concussions they suffered back in Week 2.

While losing Bentley is a tough blow to an extremely thin New England linebacking corps, getting both Flowers and Chung back would be huge for the defense heading into Week 4's "borderline must-win" showdown with the Miami Dolphins at Gillette Stadium. The New England pass rush has been nonexistent since Flowers left the Patriots' Week 2 loss in Jacksonville, and getting him back into the mix should greatly improve their odds of getting to Miami QB Ryan Tannehill this weekend. Chung should also provide some stability to a secondary that had issues tackling Sunday night in Detroit.

The Patriots also had running back Kenjon Barner and defensive end/linebacker John Simon on the field after the duo signed with the team earlier Wednesday.

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