Again, you have never seen a 5 receiver set where the x,yorz receiver declare ineligible. Last night was the fist time it has ever been done in the NFL. Bill spread the defensive secondary out. Declared the x,yorz ineligible (amendola or Edleman can't remember it was a short receiver ..?) and then pass to uncovered lineman standing one yard off the line of scrimmage "eligible". It was a whack formation. The play certainly hinted cheating, it was definitely gimmicky and cheap; and it absolutely has never happened before in the NFL.
Only applies to substitutions. Doesn't apply to reporting eligible receivers. So no, nothing wrong with what the Patriots did. Man the sour grapes is strong in this thread.
Explain to me how this is different from a tackle reporting as an eligible receiver which happens every week.
I suppose it doesn't; except that you, I and every other NFL football fan has never seen it done that way before. I guess handing out free first downs to certain teams is fair. Brand new formations in the playoffs and without proper notification to the team playing defense is both fun and fair
One receiver, six receivers, it's all exactly the same when you declare someone ineligible. If your defense is too stupid to react accordingly, you deserve to lose. Patriots won because they are the better team, pure and simple.
Ravens D did react, in fact there head coach was 20 yards onto the field shouting bloody illegal! It was a cute play by Bill, a deceptive genius.
Saying that a head coach is screaming that a play is illegal when you know it was legal does not add an ounce of validity to your argument. Your reaction to this sequence of plays is a sad attempt to make yourself feel better by rationalizing the success of the NEP. At a minimum, your bias is consistent and persistent.
The play was first of it's kind, well done creating a new play for the NFL. Edit your "bias" also goes noticed
He got a flag for it so at least the officiating was consistent. Just unfortunate that New England is given lenience in adopting a formation as deceptive as the one that claimed a vital first down
It's a brand new play, first of it's kind in the NFL. Uncovered lineman (in the left tackle position) standing 1yd off the line of scrimmage declares eligible. 4 receiver set and the inside receiver declares ineligible, uncovered left tackle runs free up the middle bc Balt d is looking at him as a left tackle and ineligible receiver. It was gimmicky and cheap, you have never seen it done before.
NO IT'S NOT. THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME A TEAM HAS EVER LINED UP A RECEIVER INELIGIBLE! Jesus Christ, have you ever watched football before?
Not with a z receiver spread out in the slot in a 5 receiver set. You have never seen that play once before in your life on the NFL.
Nope. Just watching Ben Vereen running backwards to avoid getting a penalty made me think a green helmet would head downfield.
Even if this was a first time occurrence, why does that matter? The rules state that a player with an eligible number must declare himself ineligible if he is going to be covered up on the LOS, which he did. The rules state that the ref must announce that player ineligible, which he did. Everything was done by the book. The onus then falls on the Ravens to figure their own **** out and play defense. Harbaugh called it deception, because that's exactly what the hell the Patriots were trying to do. It's not the refs job to play defense or tell the defense which guys to cover and not cover. I would kill to have a coach who would literally draw up anything to give us a chance at victory. Most of the successful teams in this league push the envelope, I wish we would do the same. We may hate the Pats and Belichick, but we should look to emulate them and their success. I'd much rather be hated for pushing the envelope and winning than sitting at hope getting blackout drunk watching reruns on Sundays in January.
