Cundiff, other Raven players claim the Pats scoreboard erred on final drive.

[PatsFan2]

What Cundiff

is stll breathing?

 

[goheels22002]

That's why there are time outs. Use one to settle down and avoid being rushed.

That said, the real scandal can now be revealed. Remember how Kraft had that MHK C-5 fly over the field pre-game? Stay with me now and I, an engineer, will explain. BB reads academic papers on statistics and such. to determine his tactics like 4th down expectancy, etc. Belichick had Kraft enlist a cadre of local aeronautical engineers from MIT in a project. They analyzed the geometry of Gillette Stadium. First using Fourier analysis and Bernoulli principal equations on their networked high end workstations, they next entered real time data on temperature and humidity et.al. and came up with a PhD worthy simulation that directed the precise flight path of the aircraft such that it created an oscillating standing wave in the atmosphere, one strong enough to influence FGs. Of course BB had the printout and was able to direct the Gost just how to place his kicks in the wave troughs to avoid misdirection. The Ravens kicked into a standing wave peak which was forceful enough to deflect the kick. Fortunately the other team's fanboys have left this site and will never know.

This is the police. Step away from the peyote buttons and come out with your hands up.

 

[THELAWFIRM226]

Even if the downs were displayed incorrectly, you mean to tell me that not on player/coach was counting and aware of what down it was? Not to mention the fact that YOU MISSED THE KICK, YOU CHOKED, LEE EVANS CHOKED TOO. As somebody mentioned before, the Ravens are constantly crying when the Pats beat that ass. Let em whine, we goin to ship baby.

 

[mgcolby]

The Refs screwed up the initial spot of the ball, not the scoreboard operator. The Refs corrected the spot and the scoreboard operator changed the scoreboard accordingly.

 

[TheSparks1]

One issue that nobody is talking about is whether the clock should have kept running after the Boldin fumble. Even though the fumble can't be advanced, I don't understand why they didn't stop the clock, since it went out of bounds. The refs were confused -- they were acting so carefully to mark the ball at the spot of the fumble, I didn't see either give a wind the clock or stop the clock signal. I think the result was correct -- since the fumble can't advance, I guess the play is over in bounds and the clock properly kept going. I thought it was interesting though. There was clearly referee confusion there.

Why was the clock NOT stopped when Anquan Boldin fumbled the ball out of bounds? The ball was snapped on this play with 0:51 remaining in the game. The next play was run with 0:27 left.

NFL Rule 4-3-3-g
If a fumble or backward pass by any player goes out of bounds, the game clock starts when an official places the ball at the inbounds line, and the Referee signals that the ball is ready for play.

I didn't notice if the clock temporarily stopped, but the fact there was 0:24 between plays likely means it was handled correctly.

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

Why was the clock NOT stopped when Anquan Boldin fumbled the ball out of bounds? The ball was snapped on this play with 0:51 remaining in the game. The next play was run with 0:27 left.

NFL Rule 4-3-3-g
If a fumble or backward pass by any player goes out of bounds, the game clock starts when an official places the ball at the inbounds line, and the Referee signals that the ball is ready for play.

I didn't notice if the clock temporarily stopped, but the fact there was 0:24 between plays likely means it was handled correctly.

Good stuff. I actually don't think the clock stopped momentarily, but I'd have to go back and see it. The ball was spotted pretty quickly, though, so it's not really all that material.

 

[Metaphors]

Even if the downs were displayed incorrectly, you mean to tell me that not on player/coach was counting and aware of what down it was? Not to mention the fact that YOU MISSED THE KICK, YOU CHOKED, LEE EVANS CHOKED TOO. As somebody mentioned before, the Ravens are constantly crying when the Pats beat that ass. Let em whine, we goin to ship baby.

To be fair, they really should have a more official way of determining the down and distance on the field.

 

[reflexblue]

NFL.com news: Did scoreboard error cause Cundiff's hurried kick vs. Patriots?



I feel like there is always an excuse when the Pats beat this team. Sounds like Cundiff is in the denial part of his heartache. Poor guy can't just admit that the moment was too big for him. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Cundiff failed to do that.

You would think a playoff caliber team wouldn't rely on a score board to know the down and distance.

 

[Wolfpack]

Why was the clock NOT stopped when Anquan Boldin fumbled the ball out of bounds? The ball was snapped on this play with 0:51 remaining in the game. The next play was run with 0:27 left.

NFL Rule 4-3-3-g
If a fumble or backward pass by any player goes out of bounds, the game clock starts when an official places the ball at the inbounds line, and the Referee signals that the ball is ready for play.

I didn't notice if the clock temporarily stopped, but the fact there was 0:24 between plays likely means it was handled correctly.

You stole my thunder!!

Over the past day with all this scoreboard talk, I CANNOT believe that no one has mentioned what I saw on my TV. The above rule actually doesn't apply inside 2:00. If the offense fumbles the ball out of bounds inside 2:00, the clock is not supposed to stop at all. This is to discourage teams from deliberately fumbling out of bounds to get a free stoppage of the clock to get lined up.

Now I don't know what the stadium clock said or what the official timekeeper said, but let me tell you that watching the game on TV that the TV clock was stopped for about 6 or 7 seconds during the cluster**** that was taking place on the field.

I was yelling and screaming at the TV! I was throwing things! I was outraged! I was starting to riot in my own home! I cursed the timekeeper and 3 generations of his family! etc.

 

[jarnhestur]

To be fair, they really should have a more official way of determining the down and distance on the field.

ROFL. Good one!

 

[Wolfpack]

I can actually almost (key word:almost) sort of sympathize with the Ravens here. A lot of people are taking the "better than thou" approach that "I bet the Patriots would never use the scoreboard to see down and distance."

Well ya know what? I bet you they do!! Maybe not the coaches on the headsets but certainly some of the players on the sidelines who maybe can't see the official marker are just going to look up at the jumbletron.

Cundiff isn't saying he would have kicked the ball differently if it was 3rd down versus if it was 4th down. He saying that if it was 3rd down, he probably wouldn't have been out there on the field in the first place. So since he thought it was 3rd down, he wasn't quite as ready as he otherwise would have been.

The fact that they had a timeout and didn't use it is what stops me from having any sympathy for them. But they're certainly not the first team to mess up with seconds left in the game.

 

[TheSparks1]

Over the past day with all this scoreboard talk, I CANNOT believe that no one has mentioned what I saw on my TV. The above rule actually doesn't apply inside 2:00. If the offense fumbles the ball out of bounds inside 2:00, the clock is not supposed to stop at all. This is to discourage teams from deliberately fumbling out of bounds to get a free stoppage of the clock to get lined up.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, I just can't find that in the NFL Rule Book. The rule cited above was implemented for the start of the 2009 season, so maybe you're mistaking it for the pre-2009 rule. Everything that happened during this sequence in the game followed the rules outlined above.

According to the rules, an intentional fumble should be flagged for illegal forward pass (even if it's not the traditional throwing motion). That's a 5 yard penalty and 10 second runoff inside 2 mins of each half.

An intentional lateral out of bounds should be flagged for delay of game. Same thing - 5 yd penalty and 10 second runoff inside 2 mins of each half. That's how the NFL discourages that behavior.

 

[pdangle]

You got it all wrong, weren't the Pats in fact GIVING them an EXTRA down? :singing:

Scoreboard-gate!

We knew the greatest combo of coach and QB in NFL history couldn't be true. Belichick has been doing this for years.

Secretly, without being discovered by 70,000 fans, the national media, six referees on the field, three in the booth, slo-motion instant replay cameras, opposing coaches and teams, the "Cheatriots" have been stealing downs from opposing teams and hiding them in an undisclosed location deep in the bowels of Gillette Stadium.

Roger Goodell should be fired for letting this happen right under his nose.

Also, I too thought that that fumble timekeeping had to be wrong that last drive. It didn't make sense to me to give the fumblers an offensive time advantage, but I thought maybe it was some nuance not covered in the rule book or unknown to me. I still don't know... but don't really care now either!!!

 

[Mainefan]

The most disgusting bit of sour grapes I've seen in years.

 

[Metaphors]

The worst part of the kick was that the hold wasn't perfect. The laces were a little under rotated. Sadly for Cundiff, that should make the ball turn right...so he must have really miss-hit the ball to make it turn left so badly.

 

[JoeSixPat]

NFL.com news: Did scoreboard error cause Cundiff's hurried kick vs. Patriots?



I feel like there is always an excuse when the Pats beat this team. Sounds like Cundiff is in the denial part of his heartache. Poor guy can't just admit that the moment was too big for him. Big time players make big time plays in big time games. Cundiff failed to do that.

While I think it was confirmed that, yes, the scoreboard operator was behind, it's a bit fishy that it took Cundiff two full days to come up with this excuse.

The bottom line is that pretty much everyone else on the team, including the coaches, knew exactly what down it was, and they all had the opportunity to call a time out and chose not to.

You really hear very few Patriots making excuses about losing to the Giants in 2007... But theres a long list of teams with a long list of excuses about why they failed to win.

 

[Sivy]

I'm a football Ref, (high school) and there, the Score board means nothing really. The white hat has the offical time, and all ref's have the down and distance.

 

[LetsGoPats36]

Baltimore Ravens: "Passing the Buck Never Stops Here!"

 

[mgcolby]

The Ravens have the longest winning streak in the history of the NFL. Just ask them, they have never actually lost a game. The Refs just always have it in for them.

 

[reflexblue]

The Ravens have the longest winning streak in the history of the NFL. Just ask them, they have never actually lost a game. The Refs just always have it in for them.

Sounds like the Squeelers.