deflated footballs and some other observations

[theanarchist]

I see now that NFL has confirmed they are looking into the fact that several game balls were found to be under-inflated during the game last night. Obviously that would not account for losing by 38 points. What it does do is confirm the lengths that the bellechick regime will go in order to try to get an advantage.

 

Speaking of advantage. How about the personal foul call on Freeman for his LEGAL hit on Brady? Happens all the time with this guy. He gets the benefit of the officials. Luck got smoked in very similar fashion later in the game and there was no call. I get sick of seeing this kind of one sidedness when it comes to Brady and the officiating. I also thought that early in the game when Brady started a slide near a first down he get one heck of a generous spot and SIMMs even mentioned it. Also get at least a yard benefit on another 1st down near the sidelines. I think that was Edelman.

 

Anyway, glad to see that the Patriots and Belechick haven't broken form by cheating(however minor the infraction may or may not be).

[HungarianColtsFan]

Refs missed some calls on both teams...sooo...  this loss is solemnly on Colts. We fell short even being competitive.

[da_pats_troll]

Roughing the passer needs to be reviewable. That one penalty was iffy, but from the angle the ref had, in real  time, what he seen was the helmet snap back, and the crown of the tacklers helmet in the general vicinity of bradys head/neck. On the Colts defensive stand near the end of the first half, I thought any one of those passes could of been called for PI if the refs were being picky, but they were letting the players play, which is a good thing. 

 

Overall, I thought it was one of the better ref'd games of the playoffs.

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

I see now that NFL has confirmed they are looking into the fact that several game balls were found to be under-inflated during the game last night. Obviously that would not account for losing by 38 points. What it does do is confirm the lengths that the bellechick regime will go in order to try to get an advantage.

Speaking of advantage. How about the personal foul call on Freeman for his LEGAL hit on Brady? Happens all the time with this guy. He gets the benefit of the officials. Luck got smoked in very similar fashion later in the game and there was no call. I get sick of seeing this kind of one sidedness when it comes to Brady and the officiating. I also thought that early in the game when Brady started a slide near a first down he get one heck of a generous spot and SIMMs even mentioned it. Also get at least a yard benefit on another 1st down near the sidelines. I think that was Edelman.

Anyway, glad to see that the Patriots and Belechick haven't broken form by cheating(however minor the infraction may or may not be).

I also noticed on the QB sneak there was no forward progress for a good 2-3 seconds. Yet no whistle. I have never seen so much time given to a team to get some extra yards. That was a pretty big one. Not that the colts would have scored afterwards.

[colts_100nascar17fan]

Deflated balls had no relavence on the outcome.

[Gabriel Alexander Morillo]

The amount of time they gave the pats to continue running before blowing the whistle(forward progress) was crap on a sub sandwhich.

[theanarchist]

Deflated balls had no relavence on the outcome.

Agree. I stated that. It does show the lengths that bellechick will go to gain an advantage by not playing within the rules.

[deedub75]

We're so soft against the Patriots that a deflated football could be a difference maker!

[Luck-Fan12]

Patriots use a cheating method? Shocker!!

[PeterBowman]

The amount of time they gave the pats to continue running before blowing the whistle(forward progress) was crap on a sub sandwhich.

I commented on that a couple times....forward progress was well stopped but they let them go until they got the first then blew the whistle

[Narcosys]

Deflated balls had no relavence on the outcome.

This is true and not true. In cold weather balls are harder and harder to handle. Deflated balls allow for better grip. This means easier to throw, easier to catch, and less likely hood of fumbling.

[ElMaestro]

While we can agree that the deflated balls wasn't the reason the Colts were blown out, it does further question the ethics of the entire Patriots organization, again, if true.  Plus, what else are they doing that no one knows about?  How else are they cheating?  On talk radio today, a caller suggested the Patriots will stop at nothing to win - would that even involve placing listening devices in opposing locker rooms?  Listening in on team communications during the game? 

[cmgww]

It happened (forward progress) with Blount too! He was stopped and they didn't blow it dead. Those little things when we are still in the game do make a difference! A couple were chain movers for the Pats

[Nesjan3]

not that's it would have made a difference in the outcome of the game, but that Pats could lose draft picks over the deflated ball issue

[Indianapolis-Colts-Fan]

Agree. I stated that. It does show the lengths that bellechick will go to gain an advantage by not playing within the rules.

Exactly. I don't even want a rematch but there's NO excuse for cheating and it should disqualify you for the year if caught. Do you think it was a mistake that their ineligible receiver didn't report in? I highly doubt it.

[theanarchist]

Exactly. I don't even want a rematch but there's NO excuse for cheating and it should disqualify you for the year if caught. Do you think it was a mistake that their ineligible receiver didn't report in? I highly doubt it.

If found to be true I would expect they will lose some draft picks

[Gabriel Alexander Morillo]

I commented on that a couple times....forward progress was well stopped but they let them go until they got the first then blew the whistle

I've never seen such bull. But then again I wonder if we'd get the same time if we'd actually make an effort to push our runner forward. We never do it, every other team does it often.

[Narcosys]

Deflated balls had no relavence on the outcome.

Maybe, maybe not. As I stated before deflated basks are easier to throw, catch, and not fumble. Helpful in copd and rainy weather.

[Narcosys]

Double

[Myles]

They keep saying Belichick is a genius.   Not much so if he thought he needed to deflate balls in order to beat this Colts team.

[IcyRhythms]

The only punishment for this, if it ends up being true, will be them losing some draft picks. I think they should have to replay the game over in the opposing teams house and the officials consistently checking the balls. That's just not the reality we live in

[IcyRhythms]

I would like to also say that deflated balls had nothing to do with getting destroyed up front on defense. Pats O-line made Blount look like Barry Sanders again. There are no excuses for that.

[RockThatBlue]

That Freeman roughing the passer call was awful. I didn't know hitting Brady in the chest was considered helmet to helmet. Not to mention it wasn't even a late hit either. Just a pathetic call.

[ElMaestro]

One question, which is hotly debated out on other forums:

 

Do the teams play with separate balls?  

 

I was under the impression that the Colts and Pats condition their balls how they like (there's a joke in there somewhere) whether that be through buffing or rubbing or scuffing.  Then there must be some sort of identifier on the balls which signify which balls are prepared for the Colts on offense and for the Pats on offense, right?  

 

So, it is conceivable that only the Patriots footballs were under-inflated to improve their handling of the football in the rainy conditions, right?

 

On other forums, posters are saying there's just one big pool of balls and both teams use the same set of balls.  

Edited January 19, 2015 by 21isSuperman

[Buddy Lee]

Don't, by now, you think it is in Belichick's DNA to seek every possible advantage? If it involves cheating..... meh. So what the heck, It's not the deed. It's not the thought. It's if you get caught. 

 

In his DNA, he seeks every possible advantage...legit or not.

 

I'm sure psychologists must have a syndrome named for this!

[coltsfanatic24]

Even if it was true, the deflated balls isn't the reason we loss the game. The secondary and the o-line were good all playoffs. Below average play from the front 7 and Luck is why we loss 4 straight games to the Patriots. It all starts with Luck, if he keeps turning the ball over against this team were never going to beat the Patriots. 

[Gavin]

Let the whining begin!

[Dh89]

That one penalty was iffy, but from the angle the ref had, in real time, what he seen was the helmet snap back, and the crown of the tacklers helmet in the general vicinity of bradys head/neck

This is a joke right? In the "general vicinity of Bradys head/neck"? Freeman put his face mask squarely in Bradys numbers. It was a horrible call. And if it has been anyone on the Pats hitting Luck that way with a penalty call I'd say the same thing.

[Superman]

This is a joke right? In the "general vicinity of Bradys head/neck"? Freeman put his face mask squarely in Bradys numbers. It was a horrible call. And if it has been anyone on the Pats hitting Luck that way with a penalty call I'd say the same thing.

 

Was a terrible call. And what's worse is that Luck gets hit late all the time, and it's almost never called.

[ColtsSouljah]

The thing with cheating is that you never know for sure how much it helped. That's one reason why it is far beyond time for the pats to actually be punished. They are cheaters, plan and simple. Did that make us lose yesterday? I have no idea. Doesn't really matter. Time for the league to disqualify teams who cheat. Even if the patriots win the Super Bowl this year, they will officially have won ZERO in the Brady era without cheating.

[peytonmanning18]

It really makes you wonder what else they're doing and not getting caught

[crazycolt1]

A lot of Pats fans think this is being used as an excuse for the poor play of the Colts. It is not an excuse. It's a pointing out the Patriots will use every possible means to get an advantage no matter if it's ethical or not. All I can say is Karma will return the favor.

[colts_100nascar17fan]

I had to laugh n agree with one a those football shows on espn saying new england could of used Frisbee's and the score would still be 45 to 7

[peytonmanning18]

I wouldn't be surprised if somehow they got film of our practices from last week

[ponyboy]

This is a joke right? In the "general vicinity of Bradys head/neck"? Freeman put his face mask squarely in Bradys numbers. It was a horrible call. And if it has been anyone on the Pats hitting Luck that way with a penalty call I'd say the same thing.

 

Agreed.  It was a horrible call and another case of Mike Carey saying something like "it's absolutely a penalty as he lead with the crown"... and he says this at the same time the super slow motion is clearly showing that he *didn't* lead with the crown.  This Carey guy is  a total clown, I really hope he is dropped.

 

On a similar note, didn't the hit on Studebacker seem like an illegal blindside block.  Simms kept commenting about what a great legal block it was.   Maybe I don't understand the rule on that call, but I've seen it called on hits where the blocker is further out in front than Bolden was on that block.

[ricker182]

While we can agree that the deflated balls wasn't the reason the Colts were blown out, it does further question the ethics of the entire Patriots organization, again, if true. Plus, what else are they doing that no one knows about? How else are they cheating? On talk radio today, a caller suggested the Patriots will stop at nothing to win - would that even involve placing listening devices in opposing locker rooms? Listening in on team communications during the game?

It starts with Robert Kraft.

That guy is really shady.

It made my skin crawl when Jeff Saturday was hugging all over him during the lockout.

[ricker182]

Agreed. It was a horrible call and another case of Mike Carey saying something like "it's absolutely a penalty as he lead with the crown"... and he says this at the same time the super slow motion is clearly showing that he *didn't* lead with the crown. This Carey guy is a total clown, I really hope he is dropped.

On a similar note, didn't the hit on Studebacker seem like an illegal blindside block. Simms kept commenting about what a great legal block it was. Maybe I don't understand the rule on that call, but I've seen it called on hits where the blocker is further out in front than Bolden was on that block.

Agree on all points.

I'd have to see a replay of the blind side block to see if it was indeed "blind sided" but it is illegal.

The roughing the passer was a joke.

Mike Carey is useless. I cannot believe he was a referee. Actually, it explains a lot.

[JlynRN]

Wow patriots cheating??  Here's my shocked face  LOL

 

[theanarchist]

Let the whining begin!

I'm not whining. As a friend of mine pointed out, why not cheat? There is no disadvantage to cheating, even if it's just deflating balls so your team can grip it better. The NFL has no way to compensate for a team cheating. If they prove the balls were deflated what's going to happen? NFL slaps their hand again with maybe taking a late round pick. Big deal

[Johnny colt]

Let the whining begin!

When you make post like this do you think it gives you the moral high ground?