mg90

Ok, keep sippin the koolaid guys. No one's interested in actually responding to my points anymore so I'm out.

What if these wide open throws you speak of were easier to catch because the ball more readily deforms to your hand? No need arguing the what if, for me it goes down as that they cheated so in goes the asterisk. Just like any other wins they have (against other teams) with that advantage. No bias here.

Let's say they have 100 wins with this "strategy". I'd bet good money that it changes to less than 100 if they play fairly. Maybe one of them falls the other way in one of our games. Maybe. We don't know.

I agree. Just don't like the what if people and people saying that's why we lost. We lost because we didn't play well enough to win.

I do think it's better to accept the loss. But that's not going to stop me from putting an asterisk next to it. And for any and all wins they've had with this advantage. If they have been doing this for years, you'd be a fool to think it had no effect on the number of wins they had. Our game is part of that sample, assuming it has been happening every game.

Ball boy couldn't let the balls out of his sight so he took them in with him. That's my guess at the defense of the video (and probably a good one). Was there anyone else in the room at the time that would make this unnecessary?

That's a good point and I would have to agree to an extent. There was another and proper way to do it though. I think Harbaugh was pissed about losing and didn't take kindly to Brady's comment which was dumb on Brady's part but wasn't done with malice. I don't think Harbough or Pagano thought it would blowup like this. They've both back pedaled. Now that fans, coaches, refs, players and the league has been educated on the issue the Patriots come out looking good because they did nothing wrong and were attached relentlessly by the press and fans.

Even if this were the case, what exactly is the proper way? Failing to bring it up during the act (mid game) would have risked losing evidence against the claim.

It is now looking like the Patriots will face no punishment. There will be new procedures implemented on how the game balls are prepared and handled. No more squeeze from the refs and it feel Ok lets play that has been going on for decades. It's really amazing to find out how many coaches had no idea about what went on with the game balls. The real danger to the integrity of the NFL comes from John Harbaugh and Chuck Pagano for conspiring to make a fellow coach and team look bad. It just shows you how far people will go to try and paint the Patriots in bad light. The funnest part is that in the end the Patriots are the victim.

You admit that a rule will be changed because of this. Doesn't that in it's self mean Harbaugh and Pagano were right to bring attention to this?

Stevan Ridley must not have been using the doctored balls, because he was benched for fumbling. And they recover a good percent of their fumbles, and they have some good backs which don't put the ball on the ground a lot. So this is another one of those cool stats, but nothing here to see for me at the moment.

http://www.advancedfootballanalytics.com/index.php/home/research/general/224-the-patriots-have-great-ball-security?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter%C2%A0

The analysis there is what I was referring to.

If they processed the ball as you said, isn't it possible this wasn't the first time? Could be a gamely routine for all we know.

You somehow act like this is any better than deflating the balls after getting them past the refs inspection. In my view, this is exactly the same as tampering with the balls after inspection. It is cheating, and your team has once again made a decision that is going to haunt them for years.

I gotta agree. Different way to get to the same result. Only in that case, it presents possibility that they deceived the gage. And that they know exactly how to do it at will (I'm sure it was only this one game though).

I'm curious as to where their fumble rates will trend now.

Just hold the Patriots accountable and penalize them. Sick of hearing ESPN explain why it's no big deal (mostly). If I were to get caught cheating to any degree on a test, I would risk getting my degree at my school. Knowing that is all I need to stay away from it. Let all teams in the league know how it goes when cheating happens. Just like their previous offense. It's impossible to catch all acts like this so that's why you punish the ones who get caught significantly as a deterrent.

They should call this mediagate because of all the stupid questions they have been asking. More worrying in the past few days the king of saudi arabia has died and a corrupt new york senator has been arrested for corruption charges, and yet on all big news outlets this is the main story still. Baffling, the whole thing is baffling. Talk about making mount everest out of a molehill I hate the media.

I agree, media sources tend to have terrible priorities. And they are continuously repeating the same info on the subject. It really is terrible timing for this to come out though, honestly I'd expect nothing less.

I love how much of the defense defaults straight to the score. Who cares. All I want to know is if they were responsible for this or not. If they were, their entire season (to me) is in question. Why are they the second best team as far as fumbles are concerned this year? I didn't find the stat for it but I'd imagine their offense did well in average time of possession, which should increase that rate to some degree. Could all those games (or some) be tainted with nonregulated ball pressure? If they think they can get away with it in the postseason, I don't see why they would think differently in the regular season. I'm curious as to the cumulative amount of cheating they've accomplished, and not necessarily just with ball tampering. And if the Pats are behind deflate-gate, they deserve every ounce of doubt the public has with their awesome team.

Edit: Did a quick search on time of possession, where they were middle of the pack so...eh. My point still stands.

"I highly doubt the league can actually prove that he is culpable. I'd have the organization push the blame onto someone else to save face, and keep Bill abroad."

Good stuff.

Maybe the pressure boy missed a decimal place.

Brandin Cooks out for a month with a broken thumb:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000429855/article/brandin-cooks-breaks-thumb-expected-out-a-month

Also, Colts believe A. Bradshaw broke his ankle yesterday.

There goes my sneaky 15th round draft pick (Bradshaw)

I meant, you said Newton had only had three good years and thus isn't worthy of a deal like kaep , but kaep isnt even worth the deal yeat because he hasn't even played 3 years worth of games, let alone three good years.

That's what I thought you meant on the other page, which is why I think Newton more than qualifies for a huge deal. Bigger sample size and pretty consistent. Better overall?   Maybe. I have more confidence in Newton being a starting QB in 5 years.

He's had three good seasons so far in his career. I don't think he's worthy of a Kap deal yet, but if he makes significant improvements this season he could warrant that type of contract.

Is he honestly less deserving than Kaepernick at this point? I think not. But doesn't he have 2 years on his rookie contract?

Negativity as realism and positivity as homerism, such a tired point. Uncertainty is constant. Maybe our strategy won't play out, maybe it will. I trust our strategy. You don't. It's an impasse, not sure why we're still arguing. The only difference is I will continue to be happy and support the strategy I think is right, you will continue to be disappointed and upset. If we win it all I get validation, you get "Oh well that was lucky."Can't be a good feeling. Although, the odds are always against us, that's the nature of competition, I just like to live on the upside. If I see something I don't like, I critique it once I have evidence that allows me to do so. I'm just not one to stomp my feet and clench my fists when things don't go my way.

Well, lol...look at our biggest complaints from last year:

1. Poor positional coaching

2. Poor performance from the OC

3. Poor OL (which naturally led to the downfall of the pass and run attacks)

4. Not enough weapons for Flacco

We addressed those problems by adding:

1. Bobby Engram, to replace Hostler

2. Kubiak, who is one of the most successful and respected OC in the league (and brought a coach with him)

3. Brought back Monroe, traded for Zuttah, and told Oher to hit the road, as well as adding Urschel, who might start for us as soon as this year (if Wagner struggles, I fully expect Urschel to step in at OG and KO move to RT)

4. Brought in S Smith and Owen Daniels. No, that is not a long term solution, but it buys us a year to see what we truly have in Marlon Brown, and to see if Crockett Gilmore and Campanaro were good choices.

That is the reality of what we added, and while I would love to have seen even more done, it is still a lot. He and the rest of us who share his sentiments by all reasonable accounts fall under "optimistically cautious" and not "homers"

Good job, both.

I could see it happening that this is another bad year, dont think its likely though. I genuinely feel we are in a better spot right now than we were last year. Call it purple shades, but a lot has been addressed. Our defense should be better, there's no reason for me to believe otherwise. And it's going to take some kind of anti-miracle for our offense to be as bad as it was last year under Kubiak and the new bodies.

While there are quite a few questions regarding S Smith, Brown and Daniels, our QB (and team of course) won a SB with less at those positions.

If those guys play like they have shown they can in the past, especially S Smith, then as long as the OL doesnt suck as bad as it did last year, there is absolutely no reason why Kubiak and Flacco should not take us deep into the playoffs. If my assumptions above are not unreasonable,then I agree, Flacco and Kubiak should be lynched if we miss the playoffs again.

Yup. Get that line going strong and if that's possible, why isn't everything else on offense just as good as our superbowl run?

One person gives me WR, one gives me O-line. Where's the TE guy now? Help me out! Lol

I'm just not worried. We didn't lose anyone on offense. And we gained some interesting pieces. I don't see it likely our offense is one of the very worst next year as it currently is.

Edit: I will say I'd like to see an RB drafted though.

In OZ we trust,,now I am loyal to our mantra but it is becoming more and more difficult to support these choices,I understand BPA but we should have taken a TE or a WR anybody but a person with more issues,,,isn't this the vent section,,,

Nope, this is the draft in general section. Although there is just as much venting in here as the official vent thread lol

I love all the crying :,)

Our offense is already arguably better at O-Line, TE, and WR than it was last year through free agency.

What's our track record for 1st round ILB talent? Nothing short of perfection. I trust the pick.

One day he's going to wish he wasn't so lazy.

I hope justice prevails. I dont care for Kaepernick one bit, specifically for whining about Richard Sherman when he did the same thing to Cam Newton. But no reason to judge him on this yet, for all I know he could have been fixing sandwiches downstairs.

We control his rights. If he wants to come back, the Ravens get to make the decision whether to sign him or not. If they choose not to, then he can talk to other teams.

my quote button wasn't workng, was talking about if we tried getting him on the practice squad.

What makes you think nobody else kicks the tires on the guy? He will go for cheap and zero guaranteed money, so that seems like a pretty big risk unless you see no potential at all in him.