Dumb Luck: The New England Patriots’ prevention of fumbles is nearly impossible.

slate.com ^ | Jan. 23 2015 | Warren Sharp

[Berlin_Freeper]

...One can clearly see the Patriots, visually, are off the chart. There is no other team even close to being near to their rate of 187 offensive plays per fumble lost. The league average is 105 plays per fumble lost. Most teams are within 21 plays of that number.

I spoke with a data scientist whom I know from work on NFLproject.com and sent him the data. He said:

Based on the assumption that fumbles per play follow a normal distribution, you’d expect to see, according to random fluctuation, the results that the Patriots have gotten over this period, once in 16,233.77 instances.

Which in layman’s terms means that this result only being a coincidence, is like winning a raffle where you have a 0.0000616 probability to win.

[Geronimo]

I think this ‘data scientist’ should ask Stevan Ridley about fumbles and Belichick’s method of dealing with them...

Then he should compare his football IQ against Belichick’s stool sample and develop a theory why his is lower...go Pats!!

[Will88]

Or maybe Bellichek has far less tolerance for RBs or receivers who tend to fumble, even if very effective, otherwise.

[Deathtomarxists]

Or maybe they just cheat, lol. Pats fans are looking a lot lot like Obama cultists these days. Very scary to watch their reactions.

[maddog55]

GO PATRIOTS!

[Will88]

Not a Pats fan, but these stats prove nothing. Maybe they should do an analysis to see if the more successful teams scored more TDs than less successful teams.

[CTyank]

The NFL has not stated that - until those facts are out there - we don’t know.

[EnquiringMind]

there is NOTHING that will help you hold on to the ball when you don’t actively protect it. This is another hopeful angle by the Pats haters.

And THAT is yet another example of denial from one of their fans.

[who knows what evil?]

Hysterical! Thanks for the link...

[SamAdams76]

If you played football for Bill Belichick, would you want to be responsible for a fumble?

Let me tell you what happens when you fumble a ball on a team coached by Bill Belichick.

After the game, Belichick has the trainers strip you down to a naked state and they shave every hair on your body below the neck. They then force you into women's clothing, complete with six inch heels. Then you have a heart shaped tattoo put on your back with the word "fumbler" underneath in pink cursive ink. You then have to spend the next few days shashaying around the locker room offering your "services" to the other players and singing over and over again in a falsetto voice "I'm a fumbler and that's okay, I tumble all night and I fumble all day..."

Once you get three fumble tattoos, you are off the team permanently.

After undergoing that rite of humiliation, you might better understand why so few Patriot players fumble the ball.

[Labyrinthos]

The remarkable thing for the upcoming next season? Some idiot standing there with the ref’s and continually measuring the air pressure of balls. Air Ref. Imagine making $50,000 a year and your only function is to stand there for two hours and continually measure ball pressure, with free laundry, free parking at the game, and a great viewpoint to watch the game being played.

The only rule change that is needed is for the game officials to maintain custody of the balls that are used from scrimmage, just like they currently do with the balls used for kicking.

[Steven Scharf]

There’s a video on Wall Street Journal where a reporter inflated a ball to 12.5 PSI. Then he placed outside where the temp was 30 degrees. After 2 hours, the ball had lost 1.5 PSI.

Game time temp in Foxboro was 52 to 49 degrees.

[fungoking]

I recall Conrad Dobler of the SL Cardinals being called the dirtiest NFL player in the ‘70s because of his reputation of biting opposing players.

---

“Dirty” Doubler had a good comeback, “how can I bite them unless they put their hands inside my face mask?”

The cardiac cardinals of my youth, curse you Bill Bid well.

[mac_truck]

NFL in ANY game is like 85 car accidents in an hour...there is NOTHING that will help you hold on to the ball when you don’t actively protect it. This is another hopeful angle by the Pats haters.

Concurring bump.

It's amazing to see the lengths some folks go to with this non-story.

[bgill]

Hey, where do I sign up for that job?

[9YearLurker]

Yeah, but it was a credible reporter.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Not so amazing a Putin lackey who condons the illegal invasion of Ukraine is a supporter of cheating.

[Berlin_Freeper]

After fumbling a deflated cheater ball...

[Berlin_Freeper]

LoL - welcome!

[SamAdams76]

The remarkable thing for the upcoming next season? Some idiot standing there with the ref’s and continually measuring the air pressure of balls. Air Ref. Imagine making $50,000 a year and your only function is to stand there for two hours and continually measure ball pressure, with free laundry, free parking at the game, and a great viewpoint to watch the game being played.

I would hire a sultry, scantily-clad woman for this job and have her bounce about the sidelines, inflating the balls with a straw. It would certainly add to the circus that the NFL already is.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Cheat!
Cheat!
Cheat!