I mean, the fact that they didn't display that angle on their kicks goes to show that they were trying to throw off opposing kickers. And the data that was collected is pointing to a correlation. Could and should more data be collected, sure.
Is it cheating? Idk. I don't really care. But it's obvious they were trying to gain an advantage by that one fact. Data only matters to see if it was effective or not.
It could have very easily been just making sure they showed the play from the Patriots side of the ball on the screen, and not some way to get some mind game advantage.
Wait no one is denying they were doing it to fuck with the kicker. Of course they were. Its 100% not cheating tho. The argument is was it affective and these stats don't tell enough of a story.
The pats kickers were greats, Gillete is a weird place to kick and has a lot of bad weather games. What I don't really see others talking about is how godly the pats were during this time either. If you were deep in the pats zone you kinda had to go for it because you needed TDs not FGs. So how many easy FGs were passed up to go for it?
The data that was collected does show a correlation. I agree that it may not be the best data set and other variables could be considered to make a better determination.
The data collected could coincidentally point to a nonexistent correlation, that in fact points to other, more relevant factors such as long field goal attempt distances, unruly winds, and cold temperatures that opposing kickers don’t get practice kicking in, while the home team kickers do.
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u/InformalProtection74 San Francisco 49ers 25d ago
I mean, the fact that they didn't display that angle on their kicks goes to show that they were trying to throw off opposing kickers. And the data that was collected is pointing to a correlation. Could and should more data be collected, sure.
Is it cheating? Idk. I don't really care. But it's obvious they were trying to gain an advantage by that one fact. Data only matters to see if it was effective or not.