The Patriots are being investigated for alleged cheating again. On the heels of Tom Brady’s poor play and being booed at home during their second straight loss, the NFL also is looking into. Spygate Part II was a false alarm: Here's why Patriots had film crew at Bengals-Browns game New England wasn't cheating and fans don't have to worry about this story taking over the news cycle. The Bengals are in possession of the original Patriots tape, and the NFL obtained a copy as part of a probe to determine whether New England violated league rules against videotaping opponents. New England Patriots vs. Cincinnati Bengals Results. The following is a list of all regular season and postseason games played between the New England Patriots and Cincinnati Bengals. The two teams have met each other 26 times, with the New England Patriots winning 17 games and the Cincinnati Bengals winning 9 games. . The Patriots claim the video crew was at the Browns-Bengals game “to capture one part of a longer feature on the Patriots scouting department, in this case a Patriots pro personnel scout while he was working in the press box.” The seven previous episodes of the video feature series, titled “Do Your Job,” are archived on patriots.com.
The Patriots are once again being accused in a possible cheating scandal, which could not have come at a worse time for Bill Belichick, who just watched his team get outplayed by an AFC playoff contender for the third time in five weeks.
This latest Patriots scandal is awfully similar to the first one. A videographer employed by the team was seen taping the Bengals sideline during their game against the Browns on Sunday. A Cincinnati employee alerted NFL security and the tapes were handed over for review. The league’s investigation of the situation is on-going.
While we wait for the league to sort all of this out, let’s try to answer some questions you may have about the situation. Starting with the most obvious one…
Do the Patriots have an explanation?
Yes, they do and it’s certainly a plausible one. The Patriots released a statement basically saying this was one big mix up. They claim their video crew, which is independent of the football operations side of things, was there to film footage for their in-house series “Do Your Job,” which covers various jobs in the organization. This particular episode would be covering a scout. The camera crew was there to record footage of an advanced scout.
According to the statement, the camera crew was credentialed by the Browns but the operation was not cleared by the Bengals or the NFL. This was “an unintentional oversight,” according to the team.
Should we buy that explanation?
Well, the Pats do produce these “Do Your Job” videos with regularity and establishing an entire series just to record the Bengals’ sidelines is a little much, but…
But?
But this all sounds eerily similar to the tactics the Pats employed during the first Spygate scandal. This is what former video coordinator Matt Walsh told the NFL during that investigation, per ESPN:
“Sources with knowledge of the system say an advance scout would attend the games of upcoming Patriots opponents and assemble a spreadsheet of all the signals and corresponding plays. The scout would give it to Adams, who would spend most of the week in his office with the door closed, matching the notes to the tapes filmed from the sideline. Files were created, organized by opponent and by coach. During games, Walsh later told investigators, the Patriots’ videographers were told to look like media members, to tape over their team logos or turn their sweatshirt inside out, to wear credentials that said Patriots TV or Kraft Productions. The videographers also were provided with excuses for what to tell NFL security if asked what they were doing: Tell them you’re filming the quarterbacks. Or the kickers. Or footage for a team show.”
Would the Patriots really be that dumb and try this again?
That’s a really good question. This is the smartest organization in NFL. And they know they are under intense scrutiny when it comes to bending the rules. Given all that, this sounds especially brazen:
The Patriots say the videographer was a contractor who was not aware of league rules dictating what he could and could not film. That sounds a little too convenient for a team that is known for its attention to detail.
Did The Patriots Cheat In The Bengals Game 2019
Then again, the production company has nothing to do with the football side of things and that’s where this “intense attention to detail” reputation comes from. For all we know, this crew is the Bengals of NFL video teams.
Still, it all sounds incredibly reckless by the Patriots, who should be especially sensitive when it comes to recording footage in opposing stadiums. After all, here’s what Bill Belichick said about the original Spygate scandal back in 2015:
“It was wrong. We were disciplined for it. That’s it. We never did it again. We’re never going to do it again. And anything else that’s close, we’re not going to do it either.”
Well, this certainly is “close” to the Spygate allegations, Bill.
Well, were they recording similar footage?
This is the key question and one that will be answered when the league announces its findings. But if we’re to believe this report from The Athletic, we don’t have to wait until then:
“According to sources who have viewed the tape, it shows about eight minutes of data focusing on recording the Bengals’ sideline. It’s a direct view of the sideline as players run on and off the field and coaches make signals for plays.
“This isn’t an over-the-shoulder of the advanced scout who is doing his job stuff. This is shooting the sideline. For an extended period of time.”
This wasn’t your standard B-roll. The Pats’ video crew was taping the Bengals sideline. Taping the team they just so happen to be playing next week.
What do the Patriots have to gain?
There’s another good question. This isn’t 2005 when defensive play-calls were still being relayed with signals from the sidelines. Now, we have communication devices for the defense…
The footage may not be as valuable as it was a decade ago but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to gain from recording an opposing team’s sideline in 2019. There are still things being signaled, including no-huddle calls (for both the offense and defense), personnel groupings and other defensive signals, such as defensive fronts and coverage adjustments. There’s enough to be gleaned from the footage to make it useful and give a team the motivation to capture it.
That Zac Tylor is a Sean McVay disciple is important, as well. McVay is known for calling in audibles from the sideline, often in the time after the headset has cutout. It’s possible that Taylor took that strategy along with him to Cincinnati. It’s clear from this video that Belichick had a keen interest in keeping eyes on McVay during their matchup in Super Bowl 53.
If Belichick thought there was something to be gained from keeping his eye on McVay, it’s not crazy to think that he feels the same way about Taylor.
None of this on its own is proof of anything, but when you start stacking all of these coincidences up (and consider the Patriots’ track record) it’s hard to just dismiss this story as some innocent mixup. If this were any other team, that would be far easier to do. Unfortunately, New England lost the benefit of doubt a long time ago.
What happens next?
Well, the NFL appears to want to move quickly.
It should be an interesting week for the NFL’s most impressive dynasty as it deals not only with declining on-field performance but yet another round of questions about its integrity.
The New England Patriots have been the most dominant team in the NFL over the past couple of decades thanks in no small part to the mind of Bill Belichick and the skills of the seemingly immortal Tom Brady.
However, their success hasn’t been without its fair share of controversy, as the team has been accused of cheating on multiple occasions stretching all the way back to 2002 when Marshall Faulk implied New England had previous knowledge of some of the plays the Rams debuted in Super Bowl XXXVI.
A couple of years later, James Harrison accused the team of costing him a chance to play in the Super Bowl when they allegedly stole signs during that year’s AFC Championship Game against the Steelers, and in 2007, the Patriots finally got nailed for illicitly taping a New York Jets practice to pick up on defensive signals (Belichick was fined $500,000 and the franchise was hit with a $250,000 sanction in addition to losing a first-round draft pick).
Of course, you can’t talk about the Patriots and cheating without addressing Deflategate, a case that eventually ended up in federal court after Brady tried (and failed) to get his four-game suspension overturned after people became more invested in PSI than any other time in human history.
On Monday, it looked like we were going to be treated to yet another scandal courtesy of the Patriots after a camera crew was spotted with a scout they sent to Cleveland’s matchup against Cincinnati ahead of their game against the Bengals this weekend.
An official for the Bengals, who were playing at Cleveland Sunday, saw a member of the video crew wearing a Patriots’ shirt and alerted the league, which confiscated the video, according to the source. NFL has video; Patriots say video is a press-box feature of the advance scout.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 9, 2019
During a press conference, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor was asked about the development and had this to say.
At the question of it being alleged a Patriots official had a videographer filming the Bengals sideline from the press box on Sunday, Zac Taylor had no comment only saying he was 'aware there was an incident' and 'the league was investigating it,' but had no comment.
— Paul Dehner Jr. (@pauldehnerjr) December 9, 2019
It looked like we were going to be treated to some more juicy Patriots cheating drama, but shortly after Taylor addressed the situation, the air was cleared, as New England was reportedly given permission to use the cameras to follow the scout as part of a documentary and none of the footage taken was used to try to gain a competitive advantage.
Patriots’ advance scout was not filming but being filmed, per a league source. He was being filmed for a feature the team produced called, 'Do Your Job.' The video crew was credentialed by the Browns to shoot video in the press box and their PR person was aware, per the source
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) December 9, 2019
Of course, it’s kind of absurd the Patriots would risk getting caught again in order to gain an edge on a 1-12 team that has virtually no shot at topping them and I came across a pretty entertaining response that succinctly summed up the situation with a fantastic analogy.
this is like Jean Georges lurking outside a Guy Fieri restaurant to steal the recipe for Donkey Sauce https://t.co/uDWiQ6ZvWR
Did The Patriots Cheat In The Bengals Game Today
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes) December 9, 2019
My condolences to everyone who lit their torches and grabbed their pitchforks only to have to swiftly extinguish them and place them back in the shed.