NFL 2015 Season

Actually I've just read that in a normal NFL game each team supplies the NFL with 12 balls 2 and a half hours before kickoff.

In the case of the Pats - Colts game each team provided 24 because of the inclement weather, so each team only uses their own balls.

This seems a pretty dumb way of handling this, why can't the NFL just supply the balls?
 
Uh, why do NE keep on doing this?! The craziest thing is that they almost certainly would have won that game anyway, so it seems mad to play with fire like they did. It just seems that Belichick and co. can't stay away from controversy.
 
Well the ref still check the balls from both teams before the game (as far as im aware), and it wasn't until 2Q that colts noticed. Soooo its looking more and more like deliberate thus not a faulty air gauge or weather.

Can brandy throw a fully inflated ball just as well ? were talking 2-3 psi thats quite a difference .
 
Whatever happens to the investigation on deflategate I doubt the balls being tampered with effected the outcome of the game.

However I was reading that it is within the rules for teams to adjust balls to their liking before games. So some QBs prefer the ball to be made rougher with sandpaper or ask for a coating to be applied. If that is the case then I'd argue that should be stopped and a level playing field applied.

Not that any of this effects the bad news Bears. Still loving the off-season so far. Emery and Trestman gone. Pace, Fox, Fangio and Gase in :). Lots of rebuilding but feel better about the people in charge now.
 
\o/ Pro Bowl (lol)

No kick-offs(!) - game starts on the 25 yd line each time

Narrower posts (14ft vs 18ft) plus extra 2 yards on the snap (15 yds vs 13 yds)

2 minute warning every quarter and ball changes possession every quarter(!)

And then a bunch of wacky time stuff, bonkers game, it's like the WWE version of NFL :p
 
Last edited:
chris4652009 said:
Just booked next Monday off :D
Click to expand...

Jealous, as a Pats fan I find it hard not to watch live.

Sadly I have little holiday, I also just found out I have an interview that friday so it would be unwise to ruin my sleep pattern.

So are they being punished for the deflating? or is that going to happen later.
They ran the ball a fair bit from what I remember which seems an ever stranger thing to do. Let's delfate them then run it more...
 
Manbatius said:
Jealous, as a Pats fan I find it hard not to watch live.

Sadly I have little holiday, I also just found out I have an interview that friday so it would be unwise to ruin my sleep pattern.

So are they being punished for the deflating? or is that going to happen later.
They ran the ball a fair bit from what I remember which seems an ever stranger thing to do. Let's delfate them then run it more...
Click to expand...

Deflating the ball would make the ball easier to hold when running and easier to take in the hand-off from the QB. Also, the Pats ran the ball loads against the Colts earlier in the season and obviously didn't feel the Colts could do anything to stop them doing it again. What I find funny is that, as has been pointed out by several publications recently, there are far more pressing issues than deflated footballs. The NFL has swept several major issues under the rug recently and seems to be using this as a way of showing that they are doing the right thing.

Also, the Pats absolutely thumped the Colts. Deflated balls or not, they still would have won comfortably. It made no material difference to the game, and I doubt the Pats were even that concerned about facing the Colts again so I'm dubious about whether they did it on purpose anyway.
 
If I know I'm going to get 99% on a test but I cheat to get 100% it's still cheating.

It was deliberate and all denials to the contrary is fanciful to say the least (I mean Belichek and Brady's denials).

Look at the number of current and former players all coming out stating that there's no way Brady couldn't have known that the balls were deflated.

And according to this there is a 1 in 16,000 chance that the Patriots haven't been cheating since 2007. It all seems pretty damning to me.

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2015/01/23/deflated-patriots-statistically-impossible-fumble-record/
 
KingOfTheDaves said:
If I know I'm going to get 99% on a test but I cheat to get 100% it's still cheating.

It was deliberate and all denials to the contrary is fanciful to say the least (I mean Belichek and Brady's denials).

Look at the number of current and former players all coming out stating that there's no way Brady couldn't have known that the balls were deflated.

And according to this there is a 1 in 16,000 chance that the Patriots haven't been cheating since 2007. It all seems pretty damning to me.

http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/2015/01/23/deflated-patriots-statistically-impossible-fumble-record/
Click to expand...

I love how you've based your 'proof' on one article that contains highly dubious stats, as pointed out by several of the people commenting on the article. You do realise that the graphs don't start at absolute zero? Basically the author of the article has started the graph at 30 because it looks much more suspicious that way. Also, the fumble rate is lower than any other team, but have you not considered that that could be down to superior coaching, Belichick benching anyone as soon as they fumble, and practising with frozen footballs?

On top of that, if you assume that a deflated ball would lead to less fumbles, surely an over-inflated ball should lead to more? If that's the case, why are the Packers the sixth best team statistically in terms of fumbles lost?
 
Last edited:
nicktay2605 said:
I love how you've based your 'proof' on one article that contains highly dubious stats, as pointed out by several of the people commenting on the article. You do realise that the graphs don't start at absolute zero? Basically the author of the article has started the graph at 30 because it looks much more suspicious that way.
Click to expand...

Of course starting the graph at 30 skews the results a little and should have started at zero (for science!) but it doesn't alter the fact that the Patriots fumble record is not just a little outside the realm of statistical probability it is practically in Narnia.


nicktay2605 said:
Also, the fumble rate is lower than any other team, but have you not considered that that could be down to superior coaching, Belichick benching anyone as soon as they fumble, and practising with frozen footballs?
Click to expand...

Yes even I would accept that Belichick is a great coach, but he isn't reinventing the wheel. He is better than probably every other coach in the game which does give you an advantage but not to that extent.

Plenty of teams bench players who fumble (not revolutionary to the Patriots)

Plenty of teams play in the cold (whether or not they practice with frozen footballs I don't know)

nicktay2605 said:
On top of that, if you assume that a deflated ball would lead to less fumbles, surely an over-inflated ball should lead to more? If that's the case, why are the Packers the sixth best team statistically in terms of fumbles lost?
Click to expand...

I assume you're refering to the fact that just as Tom Brady is on record stating that he prefers a under inflated ball, Aaron Rogers has stated he
prefers the ball to be over inflated?

Given that Rogers has never been caught cheating we can only assume that the balls he uses to be at the top end of the legally allowed ball pressure (13.5 psi). The statistical difference between a ball at 13.5 psi and one at 13 or 12.5 psi is far smaller than one at 10 psi.

On several occassion Rogers has also complained that referees have more air out of the ball than he likes (presumably putting the ball around 12.5 - 13 psi) so the same as for all the other teams.

Just because Rogers likes a ball at a certain pressure doesn't mean he gets it.

http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/201...bay-packers-upset-referees-take-air-footballs




TL:DR I'm not stating that the Patriots have definitely been cheating since 2007. To me the current situation is:

1) It is statistically possible that the Patriots haven't been cheating since 2007

2) It is statistically probable that the Patriots have been cheating since 2007
 
I do concede that the Pat's fumble statistics are so impressive that it is quite hard to believe, but then stats can be manipulated to suit any agenda. Plus we have to bear in mind that the officials are only looking at the deflated balls from the game against the Colts, not the season or the period 2007-2014 as a whole. Realistically, I don't think we'll ever know for sure if the Pats have been cheating for that time, only if they did it in the AFC Championship game.

However, I do find it very difficult to believe that an ex-Pats player wouldn't have come out by now and revealed what was going on at the club. Loyalty only goes so far and if cheating really was that systematic I find it hard to believe that out of the potentially hundreds of players that would have witnessed it there hasn't been a single one come out and say 'yeah, we have been deflating game balls since 2007'.

At the end of the day, the NFL has implemented a ridiculous rule allowing each team to provide their own footballs. In a game that can turn on small margins, this seems like a massive oversight and is just asking for trouble. I'm surprised that the only example of deliberate tampering has only occurred at college level, allowing each team to supply their own and having them checked over two hours before the game is idiotic. I'd have them checked 10 minutes before the game or even better just have them all supervised by one of the NFL-appointed match officials.

It's possible that the Pats have taken advantage of this (in my eyes it was only a matter of time before someone tried to take advantage of it), but it's equally possible that they are having mud slung at them because of spygate, and because the numbers don't seem to add up. I think for now we should hold judgement and give the Pats the benefit of the doubt, innocent until proven guilty etc.
 
nicktay2605 said:
I do concede that the Pat's fumble statistics are so impressive that it is quite hard to believe, but then stats can be manipulated to suit any agenda. Plus we have to bear in mind that the officials are only looking at the deflated balls from the game against the Colts, not the season or the period 2007-2014 as a whole. Realistically, I don't think we'll ever know for sure if the Pats have been cheating for that time, only if they did it in the AFC Championship game.
Click to expand...

I do absolutely agree that the Patriots can only be judged on the AFCCG as 'statistics' are clearly not proof of wrong doing.

People can infer (and I mean me) that it wasn't the 1st time it had happened but any punishment can only occur from that 1 game.

And that is a fair point regarding ex-Pats players.

I'm still 90% sure that after the Superbowl they will be found guilty and get a slap on the wrist of a fine and the loss of a draft pick.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom