The fog made for some challenging conditions Sunday night during the game, and it’s already made for some interesting postgame film study, according to Bill Belichick. On a conference call with the media Monday morning, he described the fourth-quarter sideline film as “pretty close to a white-out,” but did say there were some other, better angles.
“The sideline cameras are at the top of the stadium, so that’s a tough shot. The end zone cameras are a little bit lower and they get a little tighter shot, so the picture is a little bit clearer,” explained Belichick. “But, on that shot, a lot of times you’re not able to see all the guys on the perimeter.
“As they get into the middle of the third quarter and on, for those of us with aging eyes, it’s a little strained to see it, and then there’s a point where you can’t really see it at all, especially from the sideline,” he added.
“I didn’t think it really affected us that much during the game. I mean, it wasn’t a clear day. I’m not saying that, but in terms of doing anything different, I thought the receivers were able to catch the ball, the returners were able to handle the punts and the kickoffs. It might have made it a little bit more difficult, but they were able to do it without a lot of problems.”
Langi, wife leave hospital
It appears that Patriots linebacker Harvey Langi and his wife Cassidy have been released from the hospital following a stay of just over a week. The two were involved in a fairly serious car crash in Foxborough earlier this month, and Langi suffered neck and head injuries (and a back injury, according to the Patriots' injury reports), while his wife suffered fractures to both her hips as well as broken ribs. At this point, given the nature of the injury, it appears unlikely that Langi will return in 2017 — the Patriots could place him on the non-football injury list once Shea McClellin is activated off injured reserve.
More on Cooks’ touchdown
It was one of the more fascinating touchdowns of the season — a play in the second quarter of Sunday’s game where Tom Brady connected with wide receiver Brandin Cooks on a quick flip of a pass, and the receiver then proceeded to follow Rob Gronkowski all the way to the end zone for the touchdown. (Brady had a unique turn of phrase to describe the ballcarrier-blocker relationship, saying Cooks “tailpiped” Gronkowski on the way to the end zone.)
On Monday, Belichick praised Cooks for being patient and waiting for the blocks to develop.
“A lot of times, runners sometimes get impatient with the blocking, and they feel like the blockers aren’t going fast enough and they want to run past them, but they usually end up just running into defenders,” Belichick said. “I thought Cooks had a good awareness of where he was. He was already outside of everything. There wasn’t really anybody behind him, so he had good patience, let the blocks develop and then Rob kind of pushed (Robert) Alford out of bounds there and he was able to cut it up inside and get into the end zone.”
One other unique aspect of the play was sniffed out by the folks over at SB Nation, who illustrated that it looked awfully similar to a play run by the Chiefs earlier this year. Given the relationship between Belichick and Andy Reid, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Kansas City served as a bit of an inspiration for what the Patriots tried to do Sunday night.
This Patriots touchdown play looks familiar... pic.twitter.com/qpxsrcvMBh
— SB Nation (@SBNation) October 23, 2017