I don't think it possibly could be a "dumb contractor grabbing b-roll." This is an organization that manages every single aspect of its identity, processes and procedures.
If the contractors were indeed credentialed, they would have received strict guidance from the NFL regarding what they were and were not allowed to film. There's likely a document with dumb contractors signature on the bottom of it.
On another message board, the Pats seem to be defending themselves by stating the same thing you did, that the Bengals suck and why would they cheat against the Bengals. I think the reason is that they cheat against everyone. The "Do your job" piece that this is all supposedly for is likely precisely designed for this purpose. The team they were caught cheating against in Spygate was the 2007 Jets, a team that finished 4-12 that year.
The Patriots have simply squandered the benefit of the doubt. There is nothing that convinces me that they ever stopped cheating after spygate.
There are high resolution concealed cameras at Foxboro that film the opponent's sidelines, they capture this and act on this data during games. They also keep this in an archive and study it.
When they were caught on 2007, they had a room full of film of opponents signals. Only two teams have been punished for illegally filming another team, the Patriots in 2007 spygate, and the broncos in 2010. The latter was caught taping a walkthough of the 49ers in London. The person responsible was fired (Scarnecchia). Another person who knew about it was fined $50,000, then fired. That person was Josh McDaniels, who is now the OC of the fucking patriots.
The patriots cheat, this was not an accident, this was not a dumb contractor. This is part of their program, they do it intentionally and they do it often. There is nothing that will change my mind on this point. They suck, everything they have earned is tainted and I cannot wait until the stain of the patriots "dynasty" is over.
Edit: Sorry Chrome, didn't mean this to sound like I was calling you out. Just happened to quote your post.