Posted on 05/08/2015 5:06:12 PM PDT by chiller
The 2014 Patriots were just the 3rd team in the last 25 years to never have lost a fumble at home! The biggest difference between the Patriots and the other 2 teams who did it was that New England ran between 150 and 200 MORE plays this year than those teams did in the years they had zero home fumbles, making the Patriots stand alone in this unique statistic.
Based on the desire to incorporate full season data (not just home games, as a team theoretically bring “doctored footballs” with them on the road) I performed the following analysis:
I looked at the last 5 years of data (since 2010) and examined TOTAL FUMBLES in all games (as well as fumbles/game) but more importantly, TOTAL OFFENSIVE PLAYS RUN. Thus, we can to determine average PLAYS per FUMBLE, a much more valuable statistic. The results are displayed in the chart below. Keep in mind, this is for all games since 2010, regardless of indoors, outdoors, weather, site, etc. EVERYTHING.
(Excerpt) Read more at sharpfootballanalysis.com ...
One can CLEARLY SEE the Patriots, visually, are off the chart. There is no other team even close to being near to their rate of 187 offensive plays (passes+rushes+sacks) per fumble. The league average is 105 plays/fumble. Most teams are within 21 plays of that number."
For those who think this is much ado about nothing, consider not just Tom Brady, but every offensive Patriot player who carries the ball, let alone catches it. book 'em , Dano.
Cheaters gotta cheat.
Not sure I care enough to wade into this... my Packers were done in by...themselves before they could get to the Super Tilt, so I don’t have much animus for the Patriots.
My initial reaction to this is that Brady has a lot of F*** Y** money, and maybe he should just call it a career.
A deflated ball is easier to hang onto :) go ahead, attack!!
Wasn't the other team using the same game balls?
I don't think footballs deflated 10-15% below regulation would make that much difference.
I understand that you're comparing apples to apples, with plays/fumble. But with Brady at QB, they don't run as much as other teams, so the total number of plays has to be factored in, too.
No actually not. Teams use their balls when they are on offense. Only time the other team will touch the ball is in cases of turnovers, ie interception and fumbles.
Then the ball is turned over to the refs who put it back in the team's pool, and a ball from the now offense team is put into play.
they created a game plan around guys that don’t fumble. Their RBs, the TEs were surrounded by veteran guys that know how to keep the egg safe. It was part of their strategy in picking guys in the draft, in free agency and off the scrap heap.
It worked because they won.. so let’s punish them..
Goodell is an embarrassment. I’m not fan of the Pats but this is pure garbage.
Not only harder to fumble, but easier to catch and throw.
The smaller the ball, the easier it is to grip, obviously.
Each team provides their own balls.
Cheating is addictive, just like shop lifting. After you succeed a few times by cheating, it becomes impossible to stop unless caught. Exactly same as shop lifters. They never stop unless caught.
In the same way Barry Bonds created a plan to hit more home runs by injecting himself with steroids.
Deflating the ball makes it easier to grip, throw and catch.
Each team in NFL uses their OWN balls.
Just like CHINA!!!
I understand that you're comparing apples to apples, with plays/fumble. But with Brady at QB, they don't run as much as other teams, so the total number of plays has to be factored in, too.
All that is true, and needs to be part of this discussion. But there is another bigger point: all teams in all sports push the envelope. Two NFL teams were caught piping in phony crowd noise to their stadiums. Football teams with speed mow their turf very low so they'll be fast - teams with out much speed let their grass grow so it's a slow track. Defensive minded basketball teams tighten their rims, offensive minded teams loosen them. And let's not even get into baseball, where balls are doctored all the time, and people try and steal signals all the time. What about NASCAR, they're always trying to sneak something by in the pits.
And oh, there is a range of inflation that is acceptable, so the NFL is actually inviting teams to customize their balls to their liking. The Pats just pushed it too far, but every team juggles the inflation to suit their particular quarterback. ALL OF THEM. As they should. Who wants to watch players who are uncomfortable with the balls?
And let's keep in mind that in the second half of the Conference title game, and in the Super Bowl, Brady lit it up and the Pats did not fumble - and those balls were legal.
Does he deserve a few games suspension? Yeah, I'd say he does. Is this really some kind of unheard of thing? HELL no. This kind of thing goes on in all sports all the time.
No...not the same balls (except on an occasional fumble or interception). Each QB has his footballs prepared to his liking.
They do, and they are allowed and encouraged to customize them to their QB’s liking within limits. What Brady did was simply slip outside those limits, but every single team tries to get their offensive game balls to their teams liking.
>>Cheaters gotta cheat.<<
Yes, running more plays and yet hanging on to the ball better than any other team — CHEATERS I TELL YA!
It was factored which is why it will convince you they had an unfair advantage. Stats quoted were 'per number of plays'. He broke it down every which way and no other team was remotely close to the Patriots.
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