Cameragate already changing the game?

[roman_maroney]

After watching the eagles lose last night (can't wait til November 25th), I began to think about Sheldon Brown. About how, like LDT and a few others who had some choice words this week, couldn't get the job done on the field. Perhaps, like the Patriots players, some of these guys should have spent the week preparing, and done a little less commenting... but thats besides the point.

I then began to look at the weekend as a whole. Particularly, the outcome of certain games. The fact that once the "cheating" was taken away, a few things seemed a little off center. One that stands out in particular, is the Bengals game. A team that has most recently allowed 0 points at home against cleveland, is now giving up 51. You have a Panthers team (who lost a SB to the Pats but remained eerily silent on the matter throughout the week) that, while impressive last week, were unable to stop the Houston Texans on any drive. You have an eagles who's offense looks to be in complete disarray, sitting at 0-2 right now. You have the Broncos (and admitted signal theif shanahan) struggling to pull out a 3 point overtime victory at home vs. the Raiders. But I digress...

Is it premature for me to speculate (I guess we are the only ones who arent allowed to do that) on these things? Sure it is. But it will be interesting to see, as the patriots keep winning, just exactly how the rest of the season plays out. Just who relied on what, "allegedly".

In the end, the ultimate questions that need to be answered will be answered on the field. We will find out two things, how much of an impact the taping of the signals had on the game itself (i.e. the Pats keep winning), or, if so, how many other teams are affected by the leagues crackdown. Time will tell, but the amount of other organizations not speaking out is about as telling as the amount who are.

One thing I know for absolute %100 sure, the Patriots are thinking about Buffalo right now. Go Pats!

 

[Nitro]

I then began to look at the weekend as a whole. Particularly, the outcome of certain games. The fact that once the "cheating" was taken away, a few things seemed a little off center.

How was it taken away? if there even is anything you can do with what was taped, you can still get it by simply looking at the other side of the field!

 

[DaBruinz]

After watching the eagles lose last night (can't wait til November 25th), I began to think about Sheldon Brown. About how, like LDT and a few others who had some choice words this week, couldn't get the job done on the field. Perhaps, like the Patriots players, some of these guys should have spent the week preparing, and done a little less commenting... but thats besides the point.

I then began to look at the weekend as a whole. Particularly, the outcome of certain games. The fact that once the "cheating" was taken away, a few things seemed a little off center. One that stands out in particular, is the Bengals game. A team that has most recently allowed 0 points at home against cleveland, is now giving up 51. You have a Panthers team (who lost a SB to the Pats but remained eerily silent on the matter throughout the week) that, while impressive last week, were unable to stop the Houston Texans on any drive. You have an eagles who's offense looks to be in complete disarray, sitting at 0-2 right now. You have the Broncos (and admitted signal theif shanahan) struggling to pull out a 3 point overtime victory at home vs. the Raiders. But I digress...

Is it premature for me to speculate (I guess we are the only ones who arent allowed to do that) on these things? Sure it is. But it will be interesting to see, as the patriots keep winning, just exactly how the rest of the season plays out. Just who relied on what, "allegedly".

In the end, the ultimate questions that need to be answered will be answered on the field. We will find out two things, how much of an impact the taping of the signals had on the game itself (i.e. the Pats keep winning), or, if so, how many other teams are affected by the leagues crackdown. Time will tell, but the amount of other organizations not speaking out is about as telling as the amount who are.

One thing I know for absolute %100 sure, the Patriots are thinking about Buffalo right now. Go Pats!

A few things.

First is that you need to remember that each year teams have a turnover of about 25-30%. So, a team from the year before may be better or worse depending on the personnel they bring in and the injuries they've incurred.

For teams like the Texans, many people have watched them getting better and slowly bringing in the personnel they need to field a good team. They finally addressed their O-line the last 2 years in the draft and its working out very well for them. Mario Williams, Amobi Okoye, and Dunta Robinson are 3 very young, very skilled players.

Kubiak has a very good staff working for him and they've done wonders. I honestly believe that they could have stuck with David Carr and gotten the same results, but they have Schaub and he looks to be the real deal.

For the Browns, they had similar issues on their O-line. But they went out in each of the last 2 years and spent money on some big free agents. LaCharles Bentley, Kevin Shaffer (who didn't pan out at LT, but seems good at the right), and Eric Steinbach. They also brought in Jamal Lewis, who seems to have found the fountain of youth. Plus they have a great influx of young talent on the defensive side of the ball, though their defense was pretty porous against the Bengals.

There is a reason they play the games every weekend. Because on ANY GIVEN SUNDAY, ANY TEAM CAN BEAT ANY OTHER TEAM.

BTW, Denver has holes on its defensive line and at linebacker. They really miss Al Wilson. And they lost Ekuban and Holdman before the start of the year and they traded Gerard Warren as well. So, its easy to see how they could struggle against the Raiders, who have a very good defense.

 

[ChoWZa]

After watching the eagles lose last night (can't wait til November 25th), I began to think about Sheldon Brown. About how, like LDT and a few others who had some choice words this week, couldn't get the job done on the field. Perhaps, like the Patriots players, some of these guys should have spent the week preparing, and done a little less commenting... but thats besides the point.

...

One thing I know for absolute %100 sure, the Patriots are thinking about Buffalo right now. Go Pats!

Interesting perspective, but you don't know what to expect in week 2 honestly. If the camera incident happened in week 10 and week 11 we had 13 upsets in week 12 then maybe we could make a connection. This is a bit far fetched though IMO.

 

[Bertil]

The league wants more games like the one that took place in Cleveland last Sunday. Anyone who threatens this vision, along with the ongoing "Parity" theme, threatens the very core of the current "Braintrusts" (such as it is) marketing strategy. Every time I hear of the new rules enacted, they remain consistant with this vision. The NFL has to destroy Bill Belichick in order for this to come to fruition, because he'll destroy whatever productive Offensive system that is flourishing consistantly.

He's done it with the WC Offense, the Run 'n' Shoot, the Bills K-Gun, the Fastest Show on Turf and now Pretty Peyton's Pony Boys are in the crosshairs. In the eyes of the NFL and their shadow oligarchy known as the "Competition Committee", he has to go "by any means necessary". They do not have the collective brainpower to defeat his scheming on the field. They will use league politics coupled with a willing and eager cadre of Mediots, niether of which he has any use for.

Does this sound paranoid? You bet. Just because we're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get us (The Patriots and Patriot fans, that is)!

 

[Bella*chick]

I was just astounded at how sloppy the play was in most of these games. This has been an issue for some time though...nothing new.

I doubt an impact would be felt this quickly, especially since I didn't see any sweeping statements made on stealing signals.....only camera use. I highly doubt no signals were stolen this week in any game. Also, we've heard commentary on how it doesn't make much difference anyway.

 

[ClevTrev]

Interesting hypothetical, but "cameragate" has little effect on games and the supposed cessation of the practice would have no impact this early, even if the practice had been in full force. That's been my stance since the story broke. Belichick and others became fanatical about gathering every conceivable edge, and recording opposing teams' signals was one of those. The impact of this practice in a game has been very overrated. This has been confirmed by several former coaches like Parcells, Johnson, and Ditka.

 

[roman_maroney]

thanks for the responses. Maybe I didnt convey it in the way I wrote the post, but the point of it was to point out the "speculative" nature of it all and how silly a lot of it is.

As an example, people are trying to say the Patriots rings are tarnished because they were caught last sunday against the Jets taping signals, and were suspected of last year (a year they didnt win a ring). With no evidence or factual accounts of wrongdoing during their run of success. But at the same time, those people will dismiss my speculations (if they come to fruition, like I said, we have to see how it plays out throughout the course of the season).

When you say that "each year teams have a turnover of about 25-30%. So, a team from the year before may be better or worse depending on the personnel they bring in and the injuries they've incurred.", I agree. But at the same time, people wouldnt be looking at it that way if it was the PATRIOTS who suddenly started losing and/or showing great inacurracies in their on-field results. Take sheldon brown for instance, when he said he thought it was a little fishy that the pats seemed to ward off blitzes with screens, and how everyone is taking that and running with it. By the same token, teams have been successfully countering blitzes with screens for years. It's just as "circumstancial" of a comment as the point i'm making. The point of this original post was to offer a new perspective, but more importantly point out the hypocrisy and selective reasoning of the world in general right now when it comes to this scandal.