FOXBORO, Mass. — When you’ve been around Bill Belichick for as long as Devin McCourty and Patrick Chung, you might find yourself talking like the New England Patriots head coach.
McCourty and Chung, both of whom are in their sixth seasons playing under Belichick, were among a group of Patriots taking in Saturday’s AFC wild card playoff games together. Watching a game on television isn’t nearly as helpful as watching the All-22 coaches film, but the Patriots defensive backs still were able to take something away live.
“I watch more for situations,” McCourty said. “I watched with a couple of the guys Saturday night and it’s funny as things come up we’re talking about … We kind of hear ourselves talking just like Bill about a situation, not from a standpoint of watching and trying to learn X’s and O’s of they’re in two tight-end set, they’re trying to do this. For me it’s hard to watch the game copies of that and see everything, but we’re watching this like, four-down territory, they don’t need to get everything on third down, maybe they’ll probably go for it on fourth down and then it happens, and some guys are wrong, some guys are right.
“I think we more watch from just situations and try to learn from that standpoint because anything can happen in these playoffs, so I think that’s always a good thing when you’re watching these games as a so-called fan.”
The players would even make wagers on the play calls.
“I was wrong. We had a little bet on it, but it was cool — not a money bet, we were just like 10 pushups or whatever,” Chung said. “It was fun. It was fun watching it but you can’t really — when you have your time off — take your time off and be able to laugh and have fun like that because you know when you get here it’s business time, you know.”
The free time ended Monday when the Patriots returned to the practice field. The Patriots also will practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and a walk-through Friday before Saturday’s matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs at 4:25 p.m.
“It was like we didn’t skip a beat,” Chung said. “It was like straight, just go. Whatever we have that we need to work on we’re working on, and whatever we’re good at just try to stay good at those things. It wasn’t like a walk-through practice today. It was a full-go, so it was good. It’s good to get back out there.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
