Another wrinkle in the: "Patriots are cheaters" conversation. My personal opinion is that as good as the patriots are, they are the Money Mayweather of the NFL. And, just to further that, I don't think much of Money Mayweather as a truly great boxer BECAUSE of his tactics. Same goes for the Pats. No matter how much they win their legacy is tarnished in my book by the bush league tactics that they consistently pull year after year. http://espn.go.com/nfl/playoffs/2014/story/_/id/12149320/2014-15-nfl-playoffs-john-harbaugh-says-new-england-patriots-subbing-clearly-deception
They put six receivers on the field, five are eligible, one is not. You can't guard all six without giving up something bigger and that's why you have to announce you are ineligible. The deception part is the formation in general which is meant to cause confusion pre-snap and then not give you a chance to adjust before they make the formation "legal" by announcing which player is eligible and which is not. It is clearly a tactic to cheat. You are taking cheap shots.
If it's legal according to the rules, it is not cheating. If they are legally taking advantage of the rules, perhaps more teams should use the rules as such and quit complaining.
I'm not a Pats fan. Was rooting for the Ravens in that game. But I still think what they did was clever and fair. They are just masters at manipulating any advantage. I'm surprised Harbaugh didn't also claim Edelman's pass was also a form of deception. There is a reason why the Pats have been so consistent over the past decade. A lot of it has to do with out coaching other teams.
then why did the refs, after harbaugh explained the tactic, stop it? the point is the pats can't win without some form of manipulation.
Morey can't build a team without some sort of contract deception. They're just being creative. Throw the flag if it's a penalty. Every team gets penalties every game. All teams are cheaters!
This sounds an awful lot like play action. They pretend to hand off to the RB, but the QB actually keeps it. This causes confusion post-snap and doesn't give the team a chance to adjust. You can't guard both a rushing RB and the QB without giving up something bigger.
The question you should be asking is why was Harbaugh given a penalty for running on the field and objecting and Dez Bryant was not given a penalty for running on the field and objecting last week.
I actually wouldn't be surprised to see the competition committee change this in the offseason. EVen though it's technically legal it is clearly against the spirit of the rules that require players to report eligible. It is not the same as playaction.
Not the same. You aren't creating an imbalanced formation with play action, like you are with this tricky tactic. The way the pats are using this is by waiting till the last second to make the formation legal. It is similar to waiting till the last second to ice the kicker, which the nfl finally did away with.
What? Mayweather 47-0, undefeated and he's not good? Wow you don't know anything about boxing if you truly think that. Ignorance.
Comparing the Pats to Mayweather is well stupid. You say New England cheats well explain how Mayweather is cheating in boxing
Harbaugh needs to quit whining. How about maybe you lost because your quarterback, the best in the league according to you, threw two horrible interceptions. I've never been a Pats fan, but what Harbaugh is talking about is fine. He got outcoached and his defense got outsmarted. God, I hate to type that. Filming a practice is illegal. Kneeing a quarterback while he's lying down on the ground is illegal. Running on the field in protest is illegal. Having five eligible receivers is, in fact, still legal.
Screen plays should be illegal also because it is clearly deception. You are letting the defense think they are getting a sack.
I thought it was genius... and its never really been done before on this big of a stage. It also clearly worked and confused the defense enough. Its no different (in spirit) than wild-cat formations, flea-flickers, hurry-up offenses that prevent defensive substitutions, or play-action plays. It would be one thing if you didn't know who was ineligible but its clearly announced... certainly its tough for any defense to adjust right then/there when its a different guy who's ineligible each play... especially if they've never seen it before. Pure genius by Belichick... they don't stay this good/this long without finding every single advantage they could possibly find (at least the legal ones), and be innovators in discovering new tactics (I'm sure this too will be emulated). Harbaugh sounds like a coach who's mad he didn't think of it first.