Following their huge win in Southern California over the LA Chargers last weekend, some members of the Baltimore Ravens are kicking around allegations that there was something fishy about the footballs.
While they stopped short of using the D-word (Deflategate), they did use another one when describing the Charger-supplied balls that were used in the kicking game: different.
Those “different” balls may have played a part in star kicker Justin Tucker missing a 65-yard attempt in the second quarter, according to special teams coordinator Jerry Rosburg.
“In that particular situation, even though you’re in Southern California and it never rains in Southern California, the field was such that it really was not a great plant area, and the footballs were different,” Rosburg said. “Let’s leave it at that.”
Prior to the miss, a timeout by the Chargers led to Ravens long snapper Morgan Cox trying to retrieve the same ball Tucker used on his first attempt (which was voided by the timeout call).
“Unfortunately, he didn’t get that same ball,” Rosburg said. “They didn’t put that ball back in play. He kicked a different one. Different in quotation marks.”
Tucker, who also missed a 53-yard field goal, agreed something seemed off with the balls.
“They just were different,” Tucker said. “The result of that hour or whatever it was from this last pregame [warmup], none of the footballs were very good, and it was no fault of our equipment staff by any means. It was just what it was … I’ll just echo what coach Rosburg had to say in that the balls were just different than what we’re used to experiencing on your typical NFL Sunday.”
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