We have another New England Patriots controversy on our hands, folks. Well, kind of.
The Patriots used a strong second half Sunday to defeat the Cincinnati Bengals 35-17 at Gillette Stadium, apparently in spite of some malfunctioning equipment: New England’s coaches were “forced to go old school” after experiencing problems with their headsets, a source told CSNNE’s Tom Curran.
“Both offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and defensive coordinator Matt Patricia were left signaling in plays after the coach-player communication system proved so unreliable the team stopped banking on it to be of any use,” Curran wrote.
Mike Tomlin can relate, as the Pittsburgh Steelers coach complained after a 2015 loss to the Patriots that he always has headset problems in New England. Tomlin insinuated the Patriots somehow were behind those technology issues, but his theory doesn’t really hold up after Sunday’s report — unless, of course, the Patriots just wanted to give themselves an extra challenge by sabotaging their own communication system.
Curran also notes New England has had trouble with its Microsoft Surface tablets to the point where it has “basically stopped using them.” That’s good news for their durability, as head coach Bill Belichick was seen chucking one of the tablets in disgust during the Patriots’ Week 3 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
All of these technology issues haven’t slowed the Pats much, however, as they’re 5-1 after six weeks and have the NFL’s second-best point differential (+59) behind the Bills.
