Did the Patriots Cheating make that much of a Difference?

And he’s “a few months” late on the rent

 

I was at the championship game against the Patriots at Heinz field, it sure did look like to me that they knew the offensive plays before it happened. Not sure how but a lot of movement and yelling as the Steelers came to the line, a lot more then what you would normally see. Also at that time the Steelers were not so predictable team with play calling with Ben at his prime.

 

All you need to do is search the internet for articles on the Patriots and cheating. They are a culture of cheating. Players still had to make plays, but knowing what is coming IS an advantage.

All teams try to steal a signal during game play. This is why there are multiple people signaling from the sidelines and play callers covering their mouths. It’s the blatant cheating by the Patriots that puts a steroid era type asterix on their ‘dynasty’.

 

Hell yeah they CHEATED and Hell yeah it MATTERED! They completely screwed us and got away with it. Gooddell was mostly on their side the whole time as well. I mean they got caught red handed filming teams practices. How can anyone defend these actions? I will never consider them a dynasty. ********

 

That era is over. O V E R. I never want to see a thread about it in the Steeler forum.

 

Just think about the term "evidence". That says it all.

 

Gooddells kindling.

 

but he / they did - THAT is the point. They beat teams many times in Playoffs and SB's......by 3.

 

this - and the Pats BARELY beat them. Patsies, as I like say, or CHEATRIOTS, pick your name

 

I assume it helped.

Watch enough game film. I believe players and team's tendencies become clearer as a season progresses.

At the end of the day players and teams need to execute. At the end of the day, better execution generally wins the day.

 

Bill said it was a gray area in the rules that he interpreted differently than others

 

LOL

Belicheat - I think we should perhaps somehow film other teams practices.
Gooddell - That sounds like a swell idea Billy. I mean what could it help you anyways?

Marsha - Hey, these balls are too big for my hands and these people want to hurt me. Can I just deflate them so I can rid myself of my abnormal size object since I'm used to tiny balls anyways?
Gooddell - That sounds like a swell idea Tommy boy. Do you want us to make a tuck rule for you also? I mean what could it help you anyways?

Belicheat - Hey Rog. Marsha was breathed on last week and threw an interception, we'll never win a Superbowl that way.
Gooddell - Noted. Anytime he's touch it will be 15 yards for you and that will resolve the issue. I mean what could it help you anyways?

Gooddell to both. If any other NFL team has a problem with these rules it will be referred as a gray area. wink, wink, nod, nod. Thx. Should we tell Robert Kraft?
Belicheat and Marsha - We better wait til after his massage. He's a really happy person thereafter anyways.

 

Goodell- I hope there are not tapes of his massages. The fumes from the last tape burning is still burning my eyes

 

I forgot about all the penalties and calls that seemingly always went the Patriots way. I have never seen a team hold so much both the offensive line and the defensive backs and get away with it. It is almost as if they are coached up to do it. Then when alot of those same players especially the defensive backs go to there teams in free agency they are never as good as they were as a Patriot. Hmmmmm.

 

Brady's last Superbowl season with the Patriots the offensive line had only 5 holding calls against them in 19 games. That is simply not possible without help from the refs.

 

For those of you who think the cheating had little to no impact on the games: The Patriots wouldn't have gone to such lengths and risked so much if they weren't getting big advantages from doing so. It's just common sense.

I've played competitive football. If defenses know all the offenses calls, they immediately get into the right defenses to stop plays. Even when the quarterback audibles, they know what they are changing the play to and they can immediately change the defense to stop that. The offense runs out of time and has to snap the ball.

It is a huge advantage. One of the reasons the Steelers struggled offensively last season is because they didn't allow Pickett to audible or change plays or make checks at the LOS. When you can't do that, defenses lock in on what you are doing and often times you are dead in the water and behind the down-and-distance comfort zone.

Saying it didn't impact the results of games is folly.

The evidence was so awful that Goodell had it destroyed immediately so not even the other owners could see anything. It was a travesty. It would have threatened the integrity of the sport.

Everyone needs to read this article about the entire history of Patriot infractions.

https://www.espn.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/13533995/split-nfl-new-england-patriots-apart

 

What is interesting is Ben makes comments here and there about the Patriots on his podcast. I know Ben loves the drama, but if even the qb is saying stuff I think something is up.

 

I had forgotten about how Belichick would send in low level staff members disguised as janitors to the opposing teams locker room to steal their game plan. The opposing team usually had their first 20 plays that were scripted written into the game plan. The practice only stopped after the other 31 teams caught on and left phony game plans lying around for the Patriots to steal.

 

My favorite was the deflated ball incident. I bet if Pats didn't do that they would have only won by about 20 points. Can't recall but I think they won by like 30-35 points.

 

That stat about how they fumbled less thant the rest of the league, as if they are a total NFL outlier is pretty crazy... that is the kinda stuff that makes me believe they were up to no good.

 

I always remember how frustrating the games against the Patriots were. Their Offensive Line and Defensive Backs seemingly dominated with no name players at times. It always amazed me how those players would go elsewhere and disappear. Obviously they had some blue chip players along the way at those positions, but it just amazed me how all those years they would getting away with holding and grabbing. It never failed on a draw play up the middle you could clearly see the holding but they would never get called for it. I understood the element of protecting Brady as you are starting to se that same thing with the way KC games are officiated with Maholmes but it just really got me that they wouldn’t even call holding on run plays. I get it run plays get called less for holding but some of the plays were just so obvious. It was the same thing on defense. I felt like the defensive backs of the Patriots seemed to get away with a lot of holding. One thing they were coached up really well on was the covering the sideline go routes. They were excellent at being physical and crowding the WR out of bounds but at times I thought it was PI as they were so physical and I just felt when other teams tried to play the same way they would get penalized.

The thing is you often did not see opposing players complain too much on the field when it came to the holding so am I making something out of nothing, here? I guess the question is our Belichecks teams that much more disciplined and smarter than other teams or is that Referees are afraid to call penalties on Belicheck teams? I feel like in some cases the Refs are intimated by Bellicheck because Belischeck often knows more about the rules than they do. You add the element of protecting Brady it made sense for the calls to often go the way of the Patriots. I feel like opposing teams (coaches and players) were also so intimated by Brady and Belicheck that the opposing teams often played tight with alot of mistakes. No doubt Belicheck teams add more to the mental aspect of the game than any other games which can certainly get in opposing players heads. I think it is less so without Brady but playing his defenses he still adds that component.

No doubt in the Killer B era we were a clearly more talented team than the Patriots but he just found a way to take away our weapons. Was it the cheating? Who knows. The one team that seemed to have the Patriots number was the Ravens. It really didn’t matter that they knew the Ravens plays. The Ravens just out physically them and they had element of a running QB which is difficult to game plan for. Defending the Patriots it was maddening because we were so bent on playing zone against Brady and he would just pick us apart. When we would play man they would run a draw play. It was so predictable. We certainly had alot more success playing man against them but it just always seemed when the games were close it was always a call or a turnover that always went the Patriots way to make the difference.

 

A lot of this comes down to styles make the fights.
Example: Belichick never beat Cam Newton, or Lamar Jackson.....Mike Tomlin has hardly lost to both put together. Yet has lost to Belicheck quite a lot.
Hell even last year....We beat Brady, but lost to Belicheck.

 

To answer the OP, does it matter? Is theft less of a crime if you don't become rich off of it? Is it less evil to stab someone if they live instead of die?

Cheating is cheating. It went against the integrity of the league and should have been punished more severely.

If I ran the league (lol never gonna happen), I would have done a similar penalty for the franchise in terms of pick losses, but since it was uniquely orchestrated by Belichick... I would have suspended him for the number of games we could prove that he had cheated and made him ineligible for the Hall of Fame. Subsequent cheating would call for permanent removal from the NFL. I don't care which franchise it is, you can't have the integrity of the league in question but the Owner's Association allowed a smaller penalty because Goodell was making them a ton of money and it really didn't affect them individually, their team, or their bottom line.