Terrell Suggs spoke about the confusion to ESPN's Skip Bayless. (shortly before calling Bayless a douchebag on national television.)
Billy Cundiff also chimed in on the confusion in an interview with Deadspin. Cundiff explained how he has a pre-kick routine that relies on the down. He spoke on how each down has it's own preparation. On first down, he gets together with his snapper and holder while they take a few practice snaps, and he lightly kicks the ball to the team kicking consultant. On second, he takes a few "air-kicks" with no ball while looking at the goal posts on the Ravens side of the field. Cundiff said it's a bit of a mind game for himself that make the posts seem wider when he kicks on the field. Lastly, on third down he stands closely to the sideline and imagines the kick in his head before getting the order to kick the field goal if the play is unsuccessful.
You see where this is going. With the incorrect down on the scoreboard it threw off Cundiff's preparation, and forced him to rush onto the field from behind many players, as opposed to being ready and waiting on the sideline. Cundiff isn't blaming the miss on the scoreboard error, and regardless, its a kick he should have made. But it was an error on a Patriots employee's part that definitely affected the game, not only in the kicking game, but possibly in the playcalling if the coaches were confused as well.
Of course, the Ravens could have called a timeout prior to the kick, and the coaches should have noticed the correct down markers on the field. That being said, the scoreboard should of listed the correct down and distance.
We'll leave it up to you to speculate if it was a simple mistake, or another Spygate-esque Patriots tactic to swing things their way.
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