Even though Matt Patricia is no longer with the Patriots and is the coach of the Lions, he helped the team out Sunday in Miami.
The temperature was officially 87 degrees at kickoff, but got hotter as the game went on and was even more hot in the direct sun -- which was where the Patriots sideline was.
Bill Belichick agreed with Tom Brady from his appearance on The Greg Hill Show earlier in the day and said it was the hottest game he's ever coached in.
“I would agree with Tom’s assessment, I can’t remember being in a hotter game than that," Belichick said on a conference call Monday. "Again sometimes what the temperature is and how it feels are two different things. I would say it was definitely a very challenging heat. Very challenging in terms of the heat in the game."
To combat the heat, the Patriots set up canopies behind the benches (see below) for when the offense and defense were off the field to help keep the players at least a little cooler.
Belichick revealed he got the idea from Matt Patricia.
"The canopy was something that Matt (Patricia) did last year when he went down and they played the Dolphins in Miami," he said. "We talked about it this year in training camp when we were out there and I felt like it would be something worth trying. We did during the game and it definitely — it was definitely cooler under the canopy than out in the direct sunlight."
Meanwhile, the home sideline is in the shade, which makes for one of the stronger homefield advantages in the entire league.
"That is one of the real homefield advantages that Miami has," Belichick said. "You look across the field and see all those guys sitting in the shade over there. Makes you feel a little bit hotter I think. It is a good — I understand the way they set it up and that is the way they should do it at home. I think it helped to a degree in the end. If it’s 100 degrees on the field, I can’t imagine it was that much less in the canopy, but every little bit helps. We tried to do what we could there to address the situation.”
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