Dynasty of Fishiness

There has been an awful lot of smoke around the New England Patriots over the last decade. Between Spygate, tampering charges, and spawning a general manager that most Chiefs employees believe is spying on them, I think there is pretty good evidence a fire is burning somewhere. And with all of that context, this:

Cundiff told me he initially thought he was at fault, that he had looked at the scoreboard too early, before the down number had been changed. In fact, the Gillette Stadium scoreboard was off by a down. On Monday, Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs told ESPN that Ravens players thought the team had made a first down after receiver Anquan Boldin fumbled out of bounds on first-and-10 from the Patriots’ 23-yard line. Instead, the ball was marked where Boldin had lost it, a yard short of a first down. On second and third downs—which the scoreboard said were first and second—the Ravens threw unsuccessfully into the end zone. Ravens P.R. director Kevin Byrne told me—and Cundiff later learned—that team officials watched the All-22 video of the game on Monday and confirmed the scoreboard malfunction.

Could this randomly happen? Sure it could. But it sure could also fit into a tidy little pattern.