Great. Where did they rank in 2012, 2011, and 2010?
3rd, 3rd and 1st.
Do you know what cherry picking is, Ellis Dee?
“Usually towards the top of the rankings” is nowhere near “there’s no possible explanation except cheating.”
Just to clarify, that is their ranking in plays per fumble. So, for the past five years, their ranking in plays per fumble is 2, 22, 3, 3, 1.
For comparison, the closest teams in terms of geography - which also play in open stadiums, are the Giants and Jets. Their rankings over the past five years in plays per fumble were 15, 28, 5, 13 and 22 (Giants) and 25, 6, 30, 25, 13.
The dome teams that Ellis Dee pointed to earlier? The Colts rankings in plays per fumble over the past five years were 28, 4, 11, 26 and 3. The Falcons were 6, 10, 1, 2, 2.
I pulled the stats from the NFLs website to generate these numbers. So, outside of 2013, the Patriots have been in the top 3 teams in this stat for 4 of 5 years. They have outperformed dome teams and clearly are not even close to teams playing in similar environments.
It’s also important to note that these are rankings, so they don’t even give a sense of the magnitude of the Patriots’ performance relative to the rest of the league.
This is 100% right. It’s just that what came first was the explanation (illegal footballs) and now people are looking at the outcomes (extreme fumble prevention).
This is just the most perfect description of how cognitive dissonance feels and how it almost always is resolved. Thanks for sharing this with us.
I can be dense so it’s frankly hard for me to know if this is meant sarcastically or sincerely.
If the Patriots outright cheating I would renounce them. Frankly, as the years go by my caring about who wins or loses the NFL is dwindling quickly anyways.
I believe my points do explain how I went from being angry at the Patriots apparently cheating to seeing that there is nothing but allegations of cheating with plenty of reasonable explanations as to how the balls could have ended up at a lower pressure (including legal gamesmanship by the Patriots). I would welcome discussion as to the points made but unless someone can point out a flaw in my points or bring up other facts then it is time to put this to rest and discuss the Super Bowl match-up.
But, but fumbles! Ball saunas! Spygate!
fumbles - the Patriots are better coached, are one of the better teams at minimizing fumbles, the QB handles the ball better than most, and they do what they can within the rules to keep PSI as low as possible. This is a red herring at best.
Ball Saunas - I don’t see anywhere in the rules that the air in the ball has to be a certain temperature when it’s given to the official for pregame inspection so even if this were true, what rule was broken? If ball pressure is that important then the NFL should make a rule that the balls have to be at ambient outdoor temperature before inspection.
Spygate - if a team breaks a rule once and are therefore are guilty of all subsequent accusations, then each team may as well be disbanded on they are found breaking a rule. That would make for a entertaining league :rolleyes:. This is not an issue.
We don’t need to stick a fork in the “ball sauna” hypothesis because no one has mentioned “ball saunas”.
That being said: you’re now taking Belichick’s word on this? So, why are we still talking about it? He clearly said that the Patriots did nothing illegal. Or are you only listening to the things he said that fit your personal narrative?
Agreed, valid point.
Oh oh. Bill Nye the Science Guy just took a dump on the science explanation that Bill Belicheck tried to fly.
Screw Bill Nye. I’m going to wait until Mr. Wizard weighs in with an explanation.
Must be HUGE news! I found the same story on B/R! 
I can’t be the only one envisioning a person wearing both a bow tie and a hoodie with cutoff sleeves describing the scientific properties of a 3-4 defense on a Sunday morning television show.
Bill Nye Bellicheck.
Eh, I like Bill Nye, but given that other scientists have used actual, you know, science to show that pressure can change by means other than manual deflation, I’m going to wait until Nye uses actual, you know, science to demonstrate why it’s impossible.
Source: Not all balls were 2 PSI under
The one the Colts had, per the PFT source, was 2 PSI under. The others were apparently closer to 1 under.
I think the Colts deliberately let more air out of the ball they intercepted to get the Pats in trouble. I have no evidence of this, but evidence hasn’t mattered so far, so I feel free to make this accusation.
How about actual reality at Popular Science:
Other science types:
http://www.whdh.com/story/27907014/cold-weather-not-likely-cause-of-football-deflation
Also:
Uh Oh Hector, if it turns out that the tested footballs were all closer to 1 psi under 12.5, temperature difference alone accounts for the 1 psi
no need to even get into if the refs even used a gauge (absolutely no confirmation on this)
Or whether, if they did use a gauge, that they would still pprove a ball that read, say, 12.0 (absolutely no confirmation-- the ONLY confirmed info is that 1) patriots balls tested under, at halftime, by an unstated amount and 2) NFL looking into how that could have happened. )
Man, that must be really disappointing for you to read that latest report. Everything for your story hinges on a 2.0 psi difference. And even at 2.0 there’s a whole lot of reasonable doubt… but if its 1…you got literally NOTHING.
No, the Boston Globe did report that all 24 balls were gauge tested before the game.
So, no sauna, no squeezing the Charmin…
But still, keep hope alive!
Indoors or outdoors?