ItIsWhatItIs:

The Patriots used 12 backup footballs for the second half of Sunday’s AFC championship game after issues were found with most of the original 12 balls used by the offense in the first half, an organizational source told WEEI’s Joe Zarbano.

Team spokesman Stacey James confirmed to WEEI.com that the team had 24 footballs available, 12 of which were tested by the officials pregame and another dozen stored inside as backups.

After the officials found that the majority of the balls used in the first half were below the acceptable PSI as mandated by the NFL, the backup balls were brought in. According to the source, the backup balls were tested and found to be at the correct levels, and subsequently put into play — just barely in time, as the second half already had started by the time the testing was completed. This is why the officials stopped play and swapped out the kicking ball on the first play from scrimmage of the second half.


FWIW.

Cheers,
Scott.