Guess I should've included a map as well.

I wasn't referring to the circuit around Sleepy Hollow - that's explained by the "ball" bouncing in and then bouncing back out of the crater-like shape, like a golf ball rolling round the cup and deflecting off.

What I meant was that as the parachute was descending, before the rockets fired, the trajectory was apparently going this way (Ascii art "map" follows !)

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~
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~ \
____\

And after several bounces the "ball" arrived at Sleepy Hollow going the other way

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\ ~
\ ~
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~

Of course, it might just have hit a rock or a slope and got deflected, but there's something suspicious about that 180 degree change of vector.

Recall how all the first guesses of landing site were a km or so ESE of the actual location - that's where the parachute (and presumably the wind_ was blowing it. That's also the direction of prevailing winds in this part of Gusev, based on dust devil tracks and dust in the lee of rocks.

The ball was bouncing upwind. Hmmm....

Might be interesting to see a NASA analysis of what the software commanding the lateral rockets wopuld do, given those 3 descent images (or actual data on what was commanded and the accelerometer record of the response...)