Deflategate update

Vox - It's still unclear why the New England Patriots were playing with under-inflated footballs in the AFC Championship game. The NFL's investigation of "Deflate-gate" is ongoing, and they haven't yet determined whether the Patriots were cheating or not.

But in the meantime, outside analysts have been looking into other aspects of the Patriots' game — and some of what they've found seems fairly suspicious. Like the fact that the Patriots seem to fumble balls at shockingly low rates.

NFL analyst William Sharp found that, since 2010, the Patriots have fumbled dramatically less often than any other team that plays home games outside. And both Sharp and the Wall Street Journal's Michael Salfino looked at players who played for both the Patriots and another team between 2007 and 2014. Those players fumbled 46 percent less often when they were with New England.

One possible explanation for these numbers is that the Patriots were under-inflating their footballs throughout this time period. After all, under-inflated footballs would be easier for Patriots players to hold on to, preventing them from being punched out.

There are 23 NFL teams that play their home games outside. Playing more frequently in wet conditions causes these teams, in general, to fumble more often than teams that play in indoor domes.

Sharp calculated that since 2010, 22 of these teams have fumble rates (that is, the number of offensive plays per fumble) between 37 and 55. The one remaining team — the Patriots — has fumbled every 73 plays.

WCSH, ME - Dale Syphers has been teaching physics at Bowdoin College for 28 years. He said the pressure of a ball can change dramatically over the course of a game.

The valve of the ball can't take the stress of players getting tackled and falling on it. Air will seep out. He also demonstrated how a change in temperature can cause the pressure to drop. He left one in the room and put the other in a refrigerator at 40 degrees. A half hour later, the room temperature ball was still 13-pounds, but the refrigerated was 11.7 pounds "If you're doing it at 70-degrees, you're playing with a ball that's a different pressure and especially if you have cold games down to 10-degrees, it can be 2 to 3 pounds lower", he said.

Syphers is a Patriots fan and these may seem like excuses that let the Pats off the hook, but he said they are real scientific impacts on ball pressure.

Bowdoin's head football coach JB Wells has been around football a long time as player, assistant coach and now Bowdoin's head coach. He says a ball deflated a few pounds does not provide an advantage.

"I don't think so. The only time you see a difference in the football is when its way under-inflated, when it gets really soft and you can't throw it," he said.

The temperature was cold the night of the AFC Championship. hovering between 30 and 35 degrees.