Posted on 02/02/2015 1:47:52 PM PST by OddLane
Everyone knew it was coming. Second-and-1 on the 1-yard line. Marshawn Lynch was waiting in the backfield, poised to do what he was put on this Earth to do: Get a touchdown — this touchdown. The football gods had telegraphed how they wanted the game to end, directing a floating ball straight into Jermaine Kearse’s hands. Beast Mode was going to drag the New England team kicking and screaming into the end zone if he had to. But the play call came in, Russell Wilson attempted a doomed pass that Malcolm Butler intercepted, and it was Seattle that punched and screamed its way off the field.
The Web erupted in outrage that Beast Mode never got his moment. For Seahawks fans, calling a pass was essentially Pete Carroll denying his team’s fate. For many others, it seemed like an inexplicable miscue.
(Excerpt) Read more at fivethirtyeight.com ...
Yes. Several posts came up while I was typing.
The only thing deflated in that game was some egos.
Butler played it loose and didn’t get picked. To Wilson it looked like Lockette was a sure six.
Settling for the FG would have been an even worse call.
I thought it was a pretty silly article. The author wanted to resort to all kinds of statistics to buttress his claim that Pete Carroll didn’t make the key mistake and Belichick did, but even the most beer-drenched football fan could see that call completely wiped out any other kind of error possible and was far, far more egregious.
That said, I only have sympathy for Seattle fans. We in New England know all too well the image of an improbable play, such as someone coming to the ground with a football glued to the top of his helmet.
But since it isn’t the Patriots, Seattle fans probably won’t have to be subjected to that interception video the same way we in New England had to endure the millstone of Tyree’s catch.
And I wouldn’t want them to have to, either.
If the defender doesn’t see the pick coming it is a sure 6. Very high percentage play with the defense having little time to react. Pre-snap reads are really where football is played.
And a lot of ignorance is shown by a lot of people around here..
The guys on the local Seattle radio show this morning were blaming Kearse for not getting off the line faster and getting the good block on Browner which would have pushed him inside and made Butler make another step to the side to get around, which would have prevented him from getting to the ball in time.
Seems a lot of blame to go around.
Personally, I blame Lane for breaking his wrist, thus having the rookie Simon playing. /s Simon has done poorly in the few games he has played. (Two touchdowns on Simon.)
And just sort of joking about blaming Lane, but even I know that when I fall down to land and roll on my shoulder/arm - not stick my arm out. It sounds like it won’t be a career ending injury for him - I sure hope not.
Patriots played a heck of a game - scoring at will in the fourth quarter it seemed.
Yep... read was the outside linebacker. If he comes forward you throw... if he backs up you throw it away. There was not even a consideration that Butler would beat the guy to the spot.
Yeah but, straight up the middle?
Weird.
U nailed it!...the seahawks had 3 plays to win!....Pete went with a “Affirmative Action†play(and as Joe Biden would say)...â€That would have been storybook manâ€.....if that pass had connected Wilson is the MVP and Caroll is a genius..Out smarted himself big time!!>
When Wilson cocked his arm, Butler was hidden.
Pete Carol got creative at possibly the worst moment in his career! Jeez Louise Pete!... You had the damn game won!!!
Or how about, “I Would Have Gone With Peyton Manning....But I Died.”
I swiped this from another poster on another thread
Don’t remember who. But it was clever
Carroll has made a living getting his players to not start playing until the second half. It should have cost them against Green Bay, it did cost them against the Patriots. He made one big mistake in the second half. He thought Brady was another Manning,with no offensive line and thought his great defense could step it up anytime they felt like it. And I think the reason for the pass on the last play is because Carroll wants to always be the hero and wants Wilson to be the hero. This rah, rah, I’m 23 like my players, so I let them do anything they feel like doing and never disciplining them, also came back to bite him square in the ass. The thugs punching out players the minute they knew they had lost. This all from the freewheeling Pete Carroll. It’s a wonder he was not in the middle of the fight.
“Settling for the FG would have been an even worse call.”
I was joking around at our party that they were going to kick a fake field goal - Wilson to hold, Lynch to kick. Then I thought - “IIRC Lynch was a QB in high-school. Hike to Wilson, lateral to Lynch, Lynch throws into the corner to that tall guy Matthews.”
Except on the radio today they said Matthews was still too new and they hadn’t run any of the 2-minute drill plays in practice with him, hence why he wasn’t on the field. But jeeze - how tough is it to say “Hey tall guy, run over into the corner of the endzone. And if you can’t make the catch let it sail over your head.”
And if you are going to pass, it has to be a play designed so that there won’t be anyone within five yards of the receiver.
This play was a very short pass in a very crowded part of the field, it made no sense.
That actually makes sense. What really messed this whole thing up was not that they didn’t run it, but that a pass was intercepted. That is a critical nuance.
Agreed that "wasting" a pass play in that situation makes a bit of sense. I just don't think that the pass play should have been a pick/slant right in the middle (where NE's goal line defenders were). Want to waste a play? Throw a little back-shoulder pass in the corner of the endzone.
A pass play was not unreasonable, but the pass should have been away from the ruck of LBs and safeties waiting in the middle for Lynch’s run. A bootleg pass/run option by Wilson would have been a good choice, given his great success avoiding the Pat defense all day.
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