If you haven’t seen this yet, do it! I don’t know how I can make it another 8 days until the Super Bowl after watching this. The ball is now in the NFL’s court and, as I’ve said, unless they have a video of the Pats deflating a ball, I’m not sure how they can do much more than a fine.
To me, a lot of this DeflateGate talk is really about SpyGate […] People have resentment and lingering mistrust from SpyGate, the league destroyed the evidence, people did not get the explanation that they wanted on this around the rest of the country. […] I don’t think really the rest of the country cares about deflated footballs. I think they could care less. You know, I don’t think it’s that big a deal. I think that this is residual from SpyGate, they’ve been waiting for years for the Patriots to slip up; they feel like they did, and now they’re jumping all over it. […] It’s not about how many games they played with deflated footballs and who turned ‘em in […] It’s about trying to exact that pound of flesh that people wanted from SpyGate.
Christopher Gasper (via mikeoftheoldrepublic)
I don’t really do Gasper anymore, but this rings true to me.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/to-me-a-lot-of-this-deflategate-talk-is-really/
When the Patriots are ahead by two or more scores, Patriots have allowed league worst 19 20 yard plays (tied with Colts). When looking at times where the Patriots lead is less than 2 scores, the defense rockets up to 6th best, allowing just 48 plays of 20 yards. Seattle is tied first with 39. This means that when the game is close, New England has done an outstanding job of preventing the other team from picking up quick yards to move down the field- and yes, this is including the playoffs.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/when-the-patriots-are-ahead-by-two-or-more-scores/
[This is] going to make them hyper focused for the game,” Klecko said via phone on Friday. “It’s really going to lock them in on the us against the world mentality, and we all know what happened the last time something like this — got accused, or found — that was Spygate and they almost went undefeated and being the greatest team of all-time. It’s fun to watch on the outside because I know what is going on in that room.
https://www.patspropaganda.com/this-is-going-to-make-them-hyper-focused-for/
Is this game all about getting a lead and limiting Lynch’s touches as much as possible? Since the Lions game, the Pats have only started one game particularly well – last week vs the Colts, and look what happened there. They seem very adept at keeping their foot on the oppositions throat when in the lead. If the Pats get ahead, and Seattle has to throw more, I like our chances with Revis v Baldwin, Browner v Willson, and Arrington+Mccourty v Kearse. If we fall behind I worry about our run D.
Valid concerns, but I think with the way our secondary matches up with them, stopping Lynch is probably already the biggest key of the game. Would a points deficit exaggerate that? Of course, but we’ve seen this Patriots team dig out of a hole quite a few times before.
You just can’t tell how the ball is going to bounce next Sunday. Will the Seahawks have some Tyree magic? Or will it be the Patriots who things break towards like they did in the early 2000s?
All I know is that this Patriots team has proven over and over again the last few years that they’re going to be ready to fight for 60 minutes. They won’t cave like the Broncos did last year and just become a snowball of errors.
I was so excited for this super bowl after the pounding we have the colts. Beat the Seahawks and all this (unfounded) statements of “they haven’t won anything since spygate!” are over. But now there’s this, and while I think they are telling the truth and didn’t deflate any of their game balls, it feels like people will try to invalidate this next win if we get it. Which is just plain upsetting.
I hear that, but really, those who will invalidate it already would have anyway. Do you think the guy who wrote a book about Spygate and how they’re still cheating was going to be won over by them winning another one?
This is why the NFL’s ruling of it is so key. That will sway the middle in either direction. There will certainly be those who say whatever the punishment is is too light. Then those people will turn their hate to the NFL.
But once the ruling is issued the media fervor will die down and we’ll settle back to our corners of those who like the Patriots, those who hate the Patriots, and those that just know they won the Super Bowl and don’t really care either way.