- When Bill Belicheck gets two weeks to prepare, he usually comes up with a good plan and yesterday was no exception. Tom Brady had to make a lot of throws -- 50 in all -- but he was generally able to move the chains and when it came down to the last drives of the game, the Seattle defense had been on the field for too long. Given the health of the fearsome Seattle secondary, this was a particularly intelligent way to attack.
- Everyone is talking about the end of the game and the catastrophic interception that Russell Wilson threw on the 1-yard line. Was it a given that Marshawn Lynch would have scored on a running play? We'll never know, but it wasn't a given. I'm also not convinced it was the worst play call ever. You see that goal line pick play in the NFL all the time; if you were to go through the highlights over the course of the season you'd probably find a similar scoring play just about every week. What you can't do is be late with the throw. Russell Wilson was late and that gave Malcolm Butler the chance to make the play.
- The Seahawks learned how difficult it is to repeat. They were very fortunate to be in the Super Bowl at all, for reasons that we won't belabor, and yet it looked like they would pull another rabbit out of the hat. The fluky pass that Jermaine Kearse caught while lying on his back in the final minute was reminiscent of the play that Antonio Freeman made against the Vikings at Lambeau back in 2000. Here's the Freeman catch:
And here's Kearse's catch:
- Now that the game is over, it's likely that the Patriots will have to endure a lot more questioning over the "Deflategate" issue. There's been a lot of chest beating going on concerning the integrity of the game. Do you believe that? Had the game against the Colts been close, perhaps it might have made a difference, but the score was 45-7. Unless something comes out that clearly implicates either Brady or Belicheck, it's going to be difficult to make this seem like a tainted championship.
- Meanwhile, we can already start thinking about the 2015 season.
8 comments:
Its not just one game. How many close games were won with deflated balls to get them this far?
Or, maybe deflated balls are just common par throughout the league?
We will never know...
How many close games were won with deflated balls to get them this far?
Anywhere from zero to all of them.
Or, maybe deflated balls are just common par throughout the league?
We will never know...
We don't know. We aren't even sure that playing with a slightly deflated football is a competitive advantage. We do know this — Tom Brady threw for four touchdowns yesterday with properly inflated footballs.
All the NFL can really do now is change its procedures and keep all the footballs in the hands of league officials until game time.
A little scientific study has been done, apparently. Inflate the balls to nominal at 69% (inside the locker room) and then cool them to 50 degrees at game time on the field, and they come in 1 pound below spec. That happens to be what 11 of the 12 tested out at-- one pound below spec. If the 12th one, the one two pounds below spec, had been inflated only to the minimum, this "crisis" could be an entirely natural circumstance. Sorta like global warming.
What's funny is Al Michaels was play-by-play guy for both games featuring the miraculous catches. Upon the Kearse play, I was preparing for Al to say "He did WHAT?!?!"
What we do know is that apparently nobody in the NFL has ever passed a semester of chemistry and learned the ideal gas law or the varying vapor pressure of water vs. temperature. Or at least nobody cares to apply it to get consistency from game to game.
What I'm getting at with that last comment; it is very simple to get consistently inflated footballs. Inflate them with nitrogen (available at every tire shop in the country) at the temperature anticipated at game time. There is something called "climate control" in rooms which can allow this to be achieved.
But maybe it's more fun, and profitable, to argue about this instead of doing what's needed to do this.
Again, maybe it's like global warming and you can do anything you want, but it doesn't change anything.
Probably does change the game, though. I remember that about 20 years back, the Lakers were caught overinflating the balls--and "coincidentally", they had the best fast break in the league. And for the Pats, touches per fumble is way higher--it's subtle, but statistically significant. In five of their games, an extra fumble could have cost them the game.
Agreed that if the NFL rules ignore the ideal gas law, ain't nothing to be done about it until you get someone fessing up. But I would have to suggest that it can and does make a difference in how the game is played.
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