Bill Belichick Will Be Watching Seahawks On Monday Night Football
BOSTON (CBS) -- Ratings are down around the NFL, but the league can count on one viewer they wouldn't normally have come Monday night.
Bill Belichick will be watching when the Seattle Seahawks take on the Buffalo Bills, but the coach won't be kicking up his feet in a recliner with a big bowl of popcorn. He and his staff will be doing some extra scouting of New England's next opponent.
Belichick is already pretty familiar with what the Seahawks have offered this season, as he and his staff were hard at work during the Patriots' bye week breaking down Seattle's first seven games of the season. But the coach explained that Monday night offers a "unique situation" for him and his team.
"It will definitely be more beneficial to see the coaches' copy on it, but this is kind of a unique situation," Belichick explained at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. "We're pretty far ahead on Seattle. We've had a chance to work on them all week. We've done all their games up through the Saints game, so there's no more to do, and there won't be any more to do until Monday night. I think Monday night will be a good opportunity to kind of take a look at the game against Buffalo with a little bit of a blank slate."
The Patriots are well aware of Seattle's opponent this week, having played the Bills twice already this season. The last time the Pats saw the field was a 41-25 win over Buffalo, further adding to the unique situation that Monday night offers.
"Buffalo is a team that we know well from just having played against them and being a division team, so I think when we see what Seattle is doing, we'll be able to figure out why they're doing what they're doing against Buffalo, what they perceive as an area to attack or what type of game plan to utilize," Belichick said. "I think it will be interesting to watch it in reverse – to watch Buffalo, a team that we know well, attack Seattle. We're a different team than Buffalo, but still, there are certain things that carry over so we'll be able to watch how they attack Seattle and kind of do it on a timely basis as opposed to going back and looking at it after the fact. We'll sort of watch it unfold and picture plays or situations, plays and calls that we've talked about making in certain situations, and then when those situations come up, see how it would hypothetically match up against Seattle, as a I said, on kind of a timely basis, rather than when the game's over and you already know what happened. This is a little bit of a different chance to do it. As I said, I think that makes it a little bit interesting, so yes, we'll watch the game."
While many across the country are ready to turn football off come Monday nights, the Patriots will be watching, at least this week. But this isn't a bunch of guys gathering around a big screen to crush some wings and brews. With the Patriots, as always, they'll be working hard with the focus on Sunday's opponent.