Houston Texans defensive end Antonio Smith suggested the New England Patriots may have cheated on Sunday by spying on their defense. Smith said he's "suspicious" about New England's halftime adjustments that led to 27 second-half points, ESPN reports.
Houston went into halftime with a 17-7 lead over New England. After stifling the Patriots' offense in the first half, the Texans appeared to have no answer for the Patriots' offense in the second half; quarterback Tom Brady led New England to a comeback win, 34-31.
Some of the Patriots' adjustments had Smith scratching his head.
"Either teams are spying on us or scouting us," Smith told reporters, via ESPN.
Smith pointed to several new "wrinkles" added this week to the Texans' defense, which the team had never shown in previous games.
"I'm very suspicious," he said. "I just think it will be a big coincidence if that just happened by chance. I don't know for sure, but I just know it was something that we practiced this week."
Asked if he thought the Patriots knew the new things that Houston planned to do on defense, Smith said: "I'm saying it seemed like it. You can't never be for sure on anything because I ain't over there in their huddle, in their locker room, but it just felt like it."
New England, of course, was at the heart of "Spygate" in 2007 when they were penalized for videotaping the New York Jets' signals. Coach Bill Belichick was fined $500,000 and the team lost its first-round pick in 2008.
Smith declined to divulge anything specific about the Texans' new wrinkle and the Patriots' apparent adjustment to it.
"I can't tell you an example because it's G15 classified," said Smith. "It's a defensive thing that we might continue to use. ... The way, I'm trying to say it without giving it away. When you watch film of the team do something a certain way all the time no matter what team they play - it's been 12 games played and they always did it - and then all of a sudden it's changed? It was pretty clever and pretty suspicious."
