Gravey":2qg05dhh said:
The question is who did it and when or were the Colts' footballs the same way due to the cold? As far as I know they didn't test them too. If they did and only the Patriots were altered it will be interesting to see if they find the culprit. I read something earlier that says an official checks every ball 2 1/2 hours before kickoff so after that who is in charge of them?
Heard a guy this morning say that BOTH teams' balls were checked at half time, and that the Colts' balls were still within the half pound allowed range, whereas ALL of the Pats balls were under inflated, and 11 of the 12 were 2 lbs under. BUSTED!
I personally love it, because while it obviously wasn't necessary in this game, IF the Pats win the Super Bowl, then it will put another asterisks beside their name and tarnish Brady's legacy when compared to Manning and the other great QBs who didn't have to cheat.
What didn't get more traction after the Baltimore game was that he Pats skirted the rules in that game as well to gain an advantage. And it did have an impact on the outcome of that game.
Oh, while not in this article, he got this play from his "good friend", Nick Saban
!
It is customary for coaches to run usual trick plays past the league office during the week, to make sure everything is on the up-and-up. Belichick didn't do that. Right before the game, he told referee Bill Vinovich he would declare certain players as ineligible receivers. This put Vinovich in the difficult position of deciding, with no notice, if he should tell the great Bill Belichick he was trying something illegal.
Technically, what Belichick suggested is legal. Vinovich OK'd it. But the key to the plan was what Belichick did not say. He did not say he would hurry up his offense when he declared certain receivers ineligible, giving the Ravens no time to adjust to the tactic. The Ravens barely had time to see who was eligible before the ball was snapped. The officials couldn't even get into proper position. They allowed the ball to be snapped too quickly.
That was the whole point of the tactic. It was a circumvention of the rules. Look at it this way: Sometimes an offense goes to a no-huddle, hurry-up offense, hoping to wear out defensive players. But if the offense substitutes, the offense can't hurry so much. The defense gets a chance to substitute, too. It's only fair, right?
Well, that's what the Patriots avoided against Baltimore. They switched their eligible receivers and gave Baltimore no time to adjust. The league officiating office might have sniffed this out with a few days' notice, but Belichick counted on his ability to confuse and probably intimidate Vinovich.