[Defiant]

You realize that spotting a team a big lead changes the entire game, right? The play calling and strategies are all going to be a lot different, and you have to take more risk than if you are in a tight game. It is impossible to go back and say what might have been. There are games that end in blowouts that started from one miscue, and a game that might have been a nailbiter turns on one play. Indy got behind and then the bottom fell out. You have days like that in the NFL, and at all levels of sports. Then, the same two teams play again, and something totally different happens. No one knows why, it's just like throwing dice 80 times or so and seeing what happened. If you're the better team, the dice are weighted a little in your favor, but still, anything can happen.

The Patriots were a little better than the Colts, and would have won that game 60 or 70 percent of the time. I would prefer to see what would have happened without any cheating.

[Svartalfiar]

You realize that spotting a team a big lead changes the entire game, right?

Oh, definitely. And yes, if the balls hadn't been deflated, who knows what could have happened. But with deflated balls, the score was 13-7. Not too big of a difference that would cause major strategy changes. And of course, the second half was a complete blowout 28-0.
Not justifying what happened, but I highly doubt an even match would have made much difference in the outcome.